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BY  NICHOLAS  SMITH  5 


FROM   THE  LIBRARY  OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,  D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED   BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


don       o  £  *^> 

Section 


Hymns  Historically  Famous.  By  Nicholas 
Smith.  Chicago :  Advance  Publishing 
Co.,  $1.25. 

Some  thirty  hymns  are  here  included 
which  have  made  their  history,  from  the 
Te  Deum  and  Veni  Creator  to  the  work 
of  Bonar  and  Miss  Havergal,  with  sup- 
plementary chapters  on  "  Gospel  Songs  " 
and  certain  lyrics  by  American  women. 
Little  or  nothing  of  the  matter  here  pre- 
sented is  new,  and  most  of  it  has  been 
gone  over  again  and  again ;  but  Colonel 
Smith  is  doubtless  right  in  supposing 
that  even  those  who  most  love  and  use 
hymns  are  not  in  danger  of  knowing  too 
much  about  their  origin,  and  that  such 
of  the  clergy  as  attempt  to  lecture  on 
the  subject  would  often  be  thankful  to 
have  such  material  brought  within  their 
reach.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  Mr.  Julian's 
"  Dictionary  of  Hymnology,"  which  cov- 
ers the  whole  ground  after  a  fashion,  to 
these  "  popular  "  books  that  nibble  at  a 
few  corners  of  the  field :  perhaps  it  is  a 
pity  that  we  have  nothing  between  the 
two  extremes.  Colonel  Smith's  re- 
searches have  gone  far  enough  to  at- 
tain general  accuracy,  but  Stephen  the 
Sabaite  did  no  more  than  furnish  a  basis 
or  suggestion  for  "  Art  thou  weary?" 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://archive.org/details/histicallOOsmit 


NICHOLAS  SMTTH. 


'/ 


HYMNS 


fiistorieally  ff&mocis 


BY 

COLONEL 

NICHOLAS 

AUTHOR  OF 

.  SMITH 

Stories  of  Great  National 

Songs 

CHICAGO 

Advance  Publishing   Company 

215  MADISON  STREET 

1901 


Copyright  1901 

Bt 

NICHOLAS  SMITH, 


John  A.  Ulrich  Printing  Co.,  74-76  W.  Lake  St..  Chicago. 


To 
Mrs.  Kate  Kingsley  Ide 
whose  deep  interest  in  hymnology  and  wise 
suggestions  were  greatly  helpful  to 
the  author  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  volume. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 


The  author  acknowledges  his  obligations  to 
Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  for  permission  to 
use  hymns  by  Whittier  and  Holmes;  to  The  John 
Church  Company,  for  the  hymn  by  Spafford;  and  to 
Mr.  James  McGranahan,  the  composer,  for  the  hymn 
by  Dr.  Cornelius. 

He  is  also  indebted  to  The  Biglow  &  Main  Com- 
pany for  the  popular  portrait  of  Miss  Crosby;  to  The 
A.  D.  F.  Eandolph  Company  for  the  best  likeness 
extant  of  Mrs.  Prentiss;  to  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  the 
London  publisher  of  the  Life  of  Cowper,  for  the 
expressive  face  of  the  amiable  poet;  to  The  Macmil- 
lan  Company,  London  and  New  York,  for  the  profile 
of  Keble;  and  to  Marshall  Denison  Smith  of  Chicago, 
for  the  portraits  of  Toplady,  Lyte,  Elliott,  Duffield, 
and  Palmer. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


The  Te  Deum  Laudamus 1 

Art  Thou  Weary? 10 

Veni  Creator  Spiritus 15 

The  Dies  Irae .19 

A  Mighty  Fortress  is  Our  God      ....  30 

The  Great  Doxology 39 

The  Founder  of  Our  Hymnology      ....  49 

0  Happy  Day  that  Fixed  my  Choice            .      .  63 

Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul 69 

A  Famous  Resignation  Hymn 84 

There  is  a  Fountain  Filled  with  Blood           .      .  89 

Blest  be  the  Tie  that  Binds 102 

Eock  of  Ages 109 

How  Firm  a  Foundation            .       .       .       .       .  122 

Coronation 127 

From  Greenland's  icy  Mountains      ....  134 

Sun  of  my  Soul,  Thou  Savior  Dear      .       .       .  141 

Lead,  kindly  Light 148 

Just  as  I  Am 157 

Abide  With  Me 167 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee 174 

My  Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee 183 

The  Voice  from  Galilee             192 

Stand  up  for  Jesus 198 

One  Sweetly  Solemn  Thought 203 

It  is  Well  with  my  Soul 209 

A  Great  Consecration  Hymn 214 

Five  Lay  Hymn-Writers 220 

Woman's  Songs  in  Evangelism 234 

"Moody  and  Sankey  Songs" 257 

General  Index 272 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Nicholas  Smith  (author)       .       .      .        Frontispiece 

Thomas  Ken 44 

Isaac  Watts 52 

Charles  Wesley       . 68 

William  Cowper 92 

John  Fawcett 104 

Augustus  M.  Toplady 112 

Reginald  Heber 136 

John  Keble 144 

John  Henry  Newman 148 

Charlotte  Elliott 157 

Henry  Francis  Lyte 168 

Ray  Palmer 188 

Horatius  Bonar 196 

George  Duffield       . 200 

Phoebe  Cary 208 

Frances  Ridley  Havergal 216 

James  Montgomery 220 

Sir  John  Bowring 224 

John  G-reenleaf  Whittier 228 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 232 

Fanny  J.  Crosby 236 

Elizabeth  Payson  Prentiss 238 

Philip  Paul  Bliss 260 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  purpose  of  this  volume  is  twofold:  To  in- 
spire a  warmer  love  of  Church  song;  and  to  make 
the  reader  better  acquainted  with  that  class  of  hymns 
which  are  noted  for  the  history  they  have  made.  The 
special  aim  has  been  to  take  the  more  popular  and 
useful  of  our  familiar  compositions  and  give  a  fuller 
and  more  connected  story  of  the  lives  of  the  authors, 
the  origin  of  the  hymns,  with  incidents  of  interest 
and  value  illustrating  their  influence,  tnan  have  yet 
appeared  in  any  annotated  hymnal  either  in  America 
or  Great  Britain.  Twenty-three  chapters  are  devoted 
to  Church  hymns  and  gospel  songs  which  have  two 
common  characteristics  —  universal  popularity,  and 
the  power  to  make  spiritual  history. 

Many  hymns  are  historic  solely  because  their 
origin  is  closely  related  to  some  striking  event,  or 
associated  with  some  hallowed  experience;  and  the 
rule  governing  the  scope  of  the  book  has  been  re- 
laxed that  a  few  of  those  having  particular  merit, 
might  be  annotated.  The  chapter — Five  Lay  Hymn- 
Writers — was  inserted  for  two  important  reasons: 
First,  the  position  those  consecrated  laymen  occupy 
in  Church  hymnody  in  all  English-speaking  coun- 
tries, is  unique;  and,  second,  the  hymns  selected  from 
their  writings  and  printed  in  these  pages,  are  of  great 
poetic  beauty,  and  add  much  to  the  pleasure  and  profit 


of  public  worship.  There  are  many  favorite  hymns 
which  are  perfect  in  form,  exquisite  in  thought  and 
expression,  and  which  no  doubt  interpret  charming 
Christian  experiences,  but  not  being  connected  with 
noteworthy  historical  facts,  they  could  not  properly 
find  a  place  in  this  volume. 

Some  of  the  most  potent  songs  employed  in  re- 
vival efforts  during  the  past  third  of  a  century,  are 
treated  in  the  chapter  entitled,  Woman's  Songs  in 
Evangelism.  The  interesting  account  of  those  hymns 
forcibly  illustrate  how  worthy  and  prominent  a  place 
woman  fills  in  the  more  modern  gospel  hymnody. 

A  special  feature  of  the  book  is  the  chapter  that 
deals  with  some  of  the  so-called  Moody  and  Sankey 
songs.  Like  the  story  of  beautiful  Church  hymns, 
the  recital  of  the  influence  of  the  better  class  of 
gospel  songs  will  never  become  dull  reading.  The 
history  of  the  songs  selected  for  mention,  and  the 
stirring  incidents  given  to  show  how  they  have  im- 
pressed the  hearts  of  women  and  men,  and  inspired 
many  to  attain  a  higher  living,  will  deeply  interest 
all  lovers  of  sacred  song. 

I  devoutly  wish  that  this  volume  may  be  useful 
to  the  clergy  in  preparing  lectures  upon  Church 
hymns,  and  in  conducting  praise  services;  and  that 
it  may  prove  spiritually  helpful  to  the  large  and 
growing  numbers  of  young  men  and  women  who, 
with  whole-heartedness,  give  much  time  and  intelli- 
gent thought  to  mission,  Sunday  School,  and  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  work. 

Nicholas  Smith. 


Hymns  Historically  Famous. 


The  Te  Deum  Laudamus. 

F  all  the  Christian  songs  which  have  come 
down  to  us  from  antiquity  The  Te  Deum 
Laudamus  is  the  kingliest.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  Bishop  Ken's  Doxology,  no  ascription  of 
praise  written  in  modern  times,  can  be  compared 
with  it  in  the  universality  of  its  use.  The  Eev.  Dr. 
William  Reed  Huntington,  Rector  of  Grace  Church, 
New  York,  says:  "Other  hymns  may  surpass  The 
Te  Deum  in  the  exhibition  of  this  or  that  phase 
of  feeling,  but  there  is  none  that  combines  as 
this  combines,  all  the  elements  that  enter  into 
a  Christian's  conception  of  religion.  The  Te  Deum 
is  an  orchestra  in  which  no  single  instrument  is 
lacking;  first  or  last,  every  chord  is  struck,  every 
note  sounded.  The  soul  listens  and  is  satisfied;  not 
one  of  her  large  demands  has  been  dishonored." 

The  sweetest  singer  of  the  Ancient  Church  was 
St.  Ambrose,  the  good  Bishop  of  Milan.  He  was 
born  at  Treves,  in  Gaul,  in  340;  and  in  his  cradle 
he  was  marked  for  fame.  There  is  a  story  that 
a  swarm  of  bees  came  down  upon  him,  and  "the 


2  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

amazed  nurse  saw  them  gather  about  his  lips  with- 
out doing  him  harm."  Possibly,  "his  parents  had 
heard  of  the  tradition-  that  in  the  infant  life  of 
Plato/'  767  years  before  Ambrose  was  born,  bees  from 
the  Hymettus  Mountains  in  Greece — now  known  as 
Trelo  Vouni,  and  still  famous  for  its  honey — clus- 
tered about  his  mouth  and  fed  him;  and  this  inci- 
dent in  the  life  of  the  child  x\mbrose,  led  his  parents 
to  believe  that  he  was  destined  to  great  usefulness 
and  high  honors. 

Ambrose  became  distinguished  for  brain  and 
character.  He  wrote  some  beautiful  hymns  with 
which  he  combated  the  heresy  of  his  time,  and  sev- 
eral of  them  are  found  in  modern  hymnals.  When 
Archbishop  Auxentius,  of  Milan,  died  in  374,  there 
was  intense  excitement  as  to  who  should  succeed 
him.  Ambrose,  then  Prefect,  or  Governor,  of  Upper 
Italy  and  Milan,  went  to  the  Cathedral  where  angry 
crowds  had  gathered,  and  began  to  plead  for  peace. 
The  sweetness  of  his  speech,  for  which  he  was  famous, 
soon  allayed  the  turbulence  of  the  multitude,  and 
the  voice  of  a  child  was  heard  to  say,  "Let  Am- 
brose be  Bishop:"  and  instantly  there  came  from 
every  part  of  the  Cathedral  the  response,  "Amen, 
amen!"  and  Ambrose,  who  had  never  held  an  eccle- 
siastical office  was,  by  common  consent,  made  Bishop. 

Fourteen  years  after  the  birth  of  Ambrose  a  child 
was  born  at  Tagaste,  near  Carthage,  in  Numidia,  a 
country  known  in  modern  geography  as  Algeria. 
His  name  was  Augustine,  and  by  nature  he  was  im- 


THE    TE    DEUM    LAUDAMUS.  3 

petuous  and  thirsted  for  excitement.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-one  he  went  to  Home,  and  was  followed 
by  "the  tears,  the  prayers,  and  anxieties,"  of  Monica, 
his  mother.  After  a  brief  stay  in  Eome  Augustine 
went  to  Milan  where  he  heard  the  voice  of  Am- 
brose in  sermon  and  song,  and  this  event  revealed 
to  the  pagan  a  flood  of  light,  and  his  conversion, 
which  soon  followed,  gave  the  world  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  theologians  of  the  Ancient  Church. 
A  charming  tradition  has  been  current  for  more 
than  a  thousand  years  that  in  Milan  on  Easter  Sun- 
day, April  twenty-fifth,  387,  Ambrose  led  his  new 
convert  Augustine  to  the  altar  for  baptism.  The 
great  heart  of  Ambrose  swelled  with  triumph,  and 
breaking  forth  in  thanksgiving  he  6ang: 

We  praise  Thee,  O  God;  we  acknowledge 
Thee  to  be  the  Lord. 

And  Augustine,  fresh  from  his  baptismal  vow,  and 
touched  at  the  same  moment  by  the  same  sacred 
fire,  responded: 

All  the  earth  doth  worship  Thee,  the 
Father  everlasting. 

The  legend  goes  on  to  say  that  these  two  great  men 
chanted  antiphonally  that  sublime  hymn  of  praise, 
The  Te  Deum  Laudamus — an  anthem  that  became 
"the  shrine  round  which  the  Church  has  hung  her 
joys  for  many  centuries :" 


4  HYMXS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

We  praise  Thee,  0  God:  we  acknowledge 

Thee  to  be  the  Lord. 

All  the  earth  doth  worship  Thee,  the  Father  everlasting. 

To  Thee  all  angels  cry  aloud:  the  heavens  and  all  the  powers 

therein. 
To  Thee,  Cherubim  and  Seraphim  continually  do  cry; 
Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth; 
Heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  the  majesty  of  Thy  glory. 
The  glorious  company  of  the  Apostles  praise  Thee. 
The  goodly  fellowship  of  the  Prophets  praise  Thee. 
The  noble  army  of  Martyrs  praise  Thee. 

The  holy  Church  throughout  all  the  world  doth  acknowledge 
Tbee; 

The  Father  of  an  Infinite  Majesty: 

Thine  adorable,  true,  and  only  Son; 

Also  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter. 

Thou  art  the  King  of  Glory.  0  Christ. 

TTiou  art  the  everlasting  Son  of  the  Father. 

When  thou  tookest  upon  Thee  to  deliver  man. 

Thou  didst  humble  Thyself  to  be  born  of  a  Virgin. 

When  Thou  hadst  overcome  the  sharpness  of  death.  Thou 
didst  open  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  believers. 

Thou  sittest  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  in  the  glory  of  the 
Father. 

We  believe  that  Thou  shalt  come  to  be  our  Judge. 

We  therefore  orav  Thee,  help  Thy  servants  whom  Th<->n  hast 
redeemed  with  Thy  precious  blood. 

Make  them  to  be  numbered  with  Thy  saints  in  glory  everlast- 
ing. 

^  Tx>rd.  save  Thv  ^eor»le.  ard  bless  T      le  I — *': 

Govern  them,  and  Kft  them  up  for  ever. 

Day  by  day  we  magnify  Thee: 

And  we  worship  Thy  name  ever  world  without  end 

Vouchsafe.  0  Lord,  fo  keep  us  th->  day  without  sin. 

O  Lord,  have  meTv  upon  ns.  have  mercy  noon  us. 

O  Lord,  let  Thy  mercy  be  upon  us.  as  onr  trust  is  m  Thee. 

0  Lord,  in  Thee  have  I  trusted,  let  me  never  be  confounded. 


THE    TE    DLLM    LAUDAMl  5 

This  story  of  the  origin  of  The  Te  Deum  is  beau- 
tiful^  and  is  of  exquisite  sentiment,  but  those  best 
entitled  to  speak  on  the  subject  say  that  the  legend 
must  be  classed  "among  other  pleasing  typical  stories 
of  the  heroic  age  of  Christendom." 

The  time,  place,  and  beginning  of  The  Te  Deum 
are  uncertain.  But  setting  aside  all  tradition,  and 
taking  the  evidence  as  it  stands,  the  hymn  seems 
to  have  been  composed  some  time  between  A.  D.  400 
and  500.  It  is  found  in  the  rules  of  St.  Caesarius 
of  Aries,  France,  prior  to  502,  and  was  made  a  part 
of  the  Sunday  morning  service.  This  is  said  to  be 
the  earliest  notice  of  The  Te  Deum  that  has  been 
discovered.  The  Eev.  Edgar  C.  S.  Gibson,  who  is 
good  English  authority,  makes  this  statement: 
"When  we  remember  that  about  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century  the  monastery  of  St.  Honoratus  a: 
Lerins  (an  island  in  the  Mediterranean  off  the  south- 
eastern coast  of  France)  was  the  great  home  of  learn- 
ing and  center  of  activity  for  the  Gallican  Church, 
one  cannot  but  feel  that  it  is  quite  possibly  the 
very  spot  where  The  Te  Deum  originated."  Mr. 
Gibson  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  hymn  as 
it  comes  to  us  contains  twenty-nine  verses,  and  of 
those  about  one-quarter  are  taken  from  the  Bible. 
He  suggests  that  this  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
features  of  The  Te  Deum,  that  so  small  a  part  of  it 
is  •'original." 

No  other  hymn  or  anthem  has  been  used  on  so 
great  a  variety  of  historic  occasions  as  The  Te  Deum; 


6  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

and  no  other  form  of  words  has  been  the  subject 
of  so  many  musical  renderings  by  composers  of  "all 
grades,  of  all  ages,  and  of  all  nations."  It  has  such 
a  "jubilant  and  triumphant  character  that  the  sov- 
ereigns of  England  have  been  accustomed  to  go  in 
state  to  the  singing  of  the  song  after  great  victories; 
and  at  the  conclusion  of  coronations  it  has  been 
used  from  time  immemorial  throughout  Europe." 
Its  strains  have  leaped  the  barriers  of  thirteen  cen- 
turies, having  been  chanted  at  the  baptism  of  Clovis, 
at  Paris  in  496,  and  sung  at  the  coronation  of  Nich- 
olas II.  of  Eussia,  in  1894;  and  in  1897  it  was  the 
song  of  rejoicing  at  the  Diamond  Jubilee  of  Queen 
Victoria. 

Frederick  the  Great  ordered  The  Te  Deum  to  be 
sung  to  splendid  setting  by  Graun  in  commemoration 
of  the  battle  of  Prague,  fought  in  1744,  but  the 
music  was  first  performed  at  Charlottenburg,  Prussia, 
in  1762,  at  the  close  of  the  Seven  Years  War.  This 
is  said  to  be  the  most  celebrated  musical  rendering 
of  The  Te  Deum  ever  composed  on  the  continent. 
The  anthem  has  been  employed  by  the  English  on 
numberless  important  occasions,  but  perhaps  it  was 
never  sang  throughout  the  United  Kingdom  in  later 
years  in  nobler  spirit  than  when  rendered  at  the 
Crystal  Palace  to  the  magnificent  music  of  Sir 
Arthur  S.  Sullivan,  to  celebrate  the  recovery  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  in  1872. 

It  is  deserving  of  special  mention  that  Berlioz, 
the  famous  French    composer,   set   The   Te   Deum 


THE    TE    DEUM    LAUD  AMU  S.  7 

to  music  which  was  first  performed  in  Paris,  April 
thirtieth,  1854,  to  express  thanksgiving  for  the 
safety  of  the  life  of  "Napoleon  III.,  after  the  attempt 
at  his  assassination  the  week  before.  Whether  or 
not  the  spirit  of  the  words  of  the  anthem  touched 
the  hearts  of  the  French  people,  the  music  was  so 
thoroughly  enjoyed  by  the  governmental  authorities 
that  it  was  ordered  to  be  sung  at  the  opening  of  the 
great  International  Exposition  in  the  following  year. 
Flandrin,  who  stands  with  Tissot,  among  the 
very  few  of  the  noted  French  artists  of  this  genera- 
tion who  are  religiously  minded,  has  caught  the 
spirit  of  this  portion  of  The  Te  Deum, 

The  glorious  company  of  the  Apostles  praise  Thee; 
The  goodly  fellowship  of  the  Prophets  praise  Thee; 
The  noble  army  of  martyrs  praise  Thee; 

in  his  decorative  treatment  of  the  frieze  in  one  of 
the  churches  of  Paris.  Dr.  Huntington,  from  whom 
I  have  already  quoted,  gives  this  description  of 
Flandrin's  work:  "Beginning  with  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul  he  leads  the  long  column  of  the  faithful  com- 
pletely around  the  building.  Kings  marching  on 
foot,  confessors  with  the  emblems  of  their  suffering, 
bishops  and  doctors  of  the  faith,  mothers  carrying 
their  babes  and  leading  little  children  by  the  hand, 
all  are  there  making  up  the  fulness  of  the  blessed 
company  of  the  faithful  in  Christ  Jesus." 

In  recording  a   portion  of  the  history  The  Te 
Deum  has  made,  an  incident  in  the  remarkable  life 


8  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

of  Thomas  Olivers  is  worth  noting.  In  early  life 
he  was  a  shoemaker,  was  deeply  moved  by  the  preach- 
ing of  Whitfield,  and  was  a  follower  of  the  Wesleys. 
But  it  was  while  experiencing  fightings  within  and 
fears  without,  that  he  attended  the  Cathedral  at 
Bristol,  and  of  that  occasion  he  says:  "I  went  to  the 
Cathedral  at  six  in  the  morning,  and  when  I  heard 
The  Te  Deum  sung  I  felt  as  if  I  had  done  with 
earth,  and  was  praising  God  before  His  throne.  No 
words  can  set  forth  the  joy,  the  rapture,  the  awe 
and  reverence  which  I  felt/5  The  hymn  brought 
new  light  to  Olivers,  and  made  it  possible  for  him 
to  write  "The  God  of  Abraham  Praise" — one  of 
the  most  majestic  lyrics  to  be  found  in  any  Church 
hymnal. 

The  universality  of  The  Te  Deum  is  illustrated  in 
this  interesting  incident:  On  the  first  Sunday  in 
September,  1900,  solemn  high  mass  was  celebrated 
in  the  Cathedral  in  Peking.  It  was  a  thanksgiving 
service  in  which  the  people  joined  in  expressing  grat- 
itude that  the  armies  of  the  allied  powers  had  so 
promptly  and  successfully  marched  to  that  city  "at 
the  trumpet  call  of  humanity."  There  were  two 
special  features  associated  with  that  solemn,  yet 
inspiring  occasion.  On  the  facade  and  spires  of  the 
Cathedral  that  had  suffered  much  from  the  shot  and 
shell  of  the  Boxers,  waved  in  triumph  the  flags  of 
America,  Austria,  Belgium,  France,  Germany,  Great 
Britain,  Italy,  Japan,  and  Eussia.  Among  the  wor- 
shipers   on    that    day    were    ministers  representing 


THE    TE    DEUM    LAUDAMUS.  9 

many  governments,  and  missionaries  of  all  creeds. 
The  climax  of  interest  was  reached  when  the  organ 
and  the  choir  broke  forth  in  that  universal  ascription 
of  praise — The  Te  Deum  Laudamus.  It  seemed  to 
thrill  that  body  of  men  and  women  as  no  other 
composition  possibly  could  at  such  a  time  as  that. 
"It  was  the  anthem  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  on 
that  memorable  day." 

The  Te  Deum  has  taken  a  mighty  hold  on  the 
heart  of  Christendom.  It  has  fulfilled  a  wonderful 
mission.  After  thirteen  hundred  years  of  service  its 
strains  are  grander  than  ever.  It  is  the  sublimest 
anthem  of  Christian  praise  ever  written. 


Ti 


II. 

Art  Thou  Weary? 

^LEYEN  hundred  years  ago,  three  monks, 
who  had  dedicated  themselves  to  poverty 
and  rigid  discipline,  lived  at  lonely  Mar 
Saba,  situated  in  the  wildest  part  of  Judea.  One 
of  them  was  John  of  Damascus,  the  last  of  the  Greek 
fathers,  and  the  author  of 

The  day  of  Resurrection, 
Earth,  tell  it  out  abroad; 

which  is  found  in  many  hymnals  of  to-day.  Another 

monk  was  John's  foster  brother,  St.  Cosmas,  a  Greek 

poet  of  large  ability,  and  the  writer  of  the  beautiful 

hymn, 

Christ    is   born;    tell   forth   His   fame; 
Christ  from  heaven;  His  love  proclaim; 

which  is  still  in  modern  use.  The  younger  of  the 
three  was  St.  Stephen — John's  nephew — who  at  the 
age  of  ten  entered  Mar  Saba  and  remained  in  its 
gloomy  isolation  sixty  years,  passing  away  in  794. 
The  monastery  is  about  ten  miles  from  Jerusalem, 
and  rests  upon  a  lofty  cliff,  and  has  withstood  the 
savage  desolation  of  fourteen  centuries.  It  has  the 
appearance  of  a  huge  fortress,  has  massive  walls  and 
innumerable  cells  and  passage-ways.  When  the  Eev. 
James  King,  of  England,  visited  Mar  Saba  fifteen 


ART  THOU  WE  ART  f  11 

years  ago,  he  found  forty  monks  there;  and  in  self- 
abnegation  and  severe  discipline  they  were  not 
different  from  the  trio  of  singers  of  ancient  times. 
They  held  seven  services  in  twenty-four  hours — five 
by  day  and  two  by  night.  In  the  chapel,  hewn  out 
of  solid  rock,  were  the  tombs  of  John  of  Damascus 
and  Stephen  his  nephew.  Every  morning,  says  Mr. 
King,  wolves  and  jackals  in  great  numbers  assem- 
bled at  the  foot  of  the  monastery  cliff  which  is  almost 
five  hundred  feet  to  the  brook  Kedron;  and  from 
this  strange  assemblage  came  a  prolonged  mourn- 
ful cry  which  added  terror  to  the  stern  desolation  of 
the  scene. 

It  was  in  such  a  wilderness  of  gloom  as  this  that 
St.  Stephen  wrote  the  lovely  hymn, 

Art  thou  weary,  art  thou  languid, 

Art  thou  sore  distress'd? 
"Come  to  Me,"  saith  One,  "and  coming 

Be  at  rest." 

Hath  He  marks  to  lead  me  to  Him, 

If  He  be  my  Guide? 
"In  His  feet  and  hands  are  wound-prints, 

And  His  side." 

Is  there  diadem,  as  Monarch, 

That   His  brow  adorns? 
"Yea,  a  crown,  in  very  surety, 

But  of  thorns." 

If  I  find  Him,  if  I  follow, 

What  His  guerdon  here? 
"Many  a  sorrow,  many  a  labor, 

Many  a  tear." 


12  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

If  I  still  hold  closely  to  him, 

What  hath  He  at  last? 
"Sorrow  vanquished,  labor  ended, 

Jordan    pass'd." 

If  I  ask  Him  to  receive  me, 

Will  He  say  me  nay? 
"Not   till  earth,  and  not  till   heaven 

Pass   awav." 

Finding,  following,  keeping,  struggling, 

Is  He  sure  to  bless? 
"Saints,  apostles,  prophets,  martyrs, 

Answer,   Yes." 

It  was  through  the  surpassing  ability  of  Dr.  John 
Mason  Neale  of  London,  to  render  into  English  many 
of  the  finer  ancient  Greek  and  Latin  hymns,  that 
almost  every  hymnal  published  in  this  country  or 
in  Great  Britain  during  the  past  twenty  years,  con- 
tains this  hymn.  Dr  Neale  was  one  of  the  ablest 
linguists  and  hymnologists  of  his  time.  He  belonged 
to  the  most  advanced  section  of  the  High  Church 
party,  and  for  years  was  "one  of  the  most  misunder- 
stood and  unpopular  men  in  England."  He  was 
a  man  of  strange  ways  and  of  many  sorrows,  and  was 
as  oblivious  to  personal  comfort  as  the  monk  whose 
beautiful  hymn  he  has  made  immortal.  Dr.  Neale 
was  translated  in  1866 — in  the  prime  of  his  intel- 
lectual greatness — at  the  age  of  forty-eight  years. 

"Stephanos,"  the  tune  which  has  become  wedded 
to  Art  Thou  Weary?  was  composed  by  Sir  Henry 
Williams  Baker  in  1868.  He  was  a  baronet,  was 
also  vicar  of  Monkland,  and  was  one  of  the  editors 


ART  THOU  WEARY?  i3 

of  the  famous  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern.  The 
tune  is  delightful  in  its  simplicity  and  forms  a 
charming  companionship  with  the  exquisite  hymn  of 
the  Mar  Saba  monk. 

History  testifies  that  Art  Thou  Weary?  has 
cheered  many  a  fainting  soul.  It  is  the  product  of 
strange  times,  still  "it  has  the  dew  of  youth  upon 
it."  There  is  nothing  in  our  modern  hymnology 
more  melodious,  or  that  touches  the  heart  with  more 
tenderness  than  this  sweet  lyric  that  came  into  being 
in  the  midst  of  the  heresies  of  one  of  the  darkest  ages 
of  the  w^rld.  William  T.  Stead  says  the  strains  of 
the  song  of  Stephen  the  Sabaite,  "originally  raised 
on  the  stern  ramparts  of  an  outpost  of  Eastern  Chris- 
tendom already  threatened  with  submersion  beneath 
the  flood  of  Moslem  conquest,  rings  with  ever  in- 
creasing volume  of  melodious  sound  through  the 
whole  wide  world  to-day." 

Mrs.  Franklin  Lynde  Green  of  Connecticut — bet- 
ter known  to  the  literary  world  as  Miss  Sarah  Pratt 
McLean — published  her  popular  book,  Cape  Cod 
Folks  in  1882;  and  in  the  story  she  makes  George 
Olver  and  Benny  Cradlebow  sing  Art  Thou  Weary? 
as  a  duet  while  they  are  mending  their  boat  just 
before  Cradlebow's  heroic  death.  Captain  Arkell 
describes  the  singing  of  the  duet  as  follows: 

"By  and  by  him  and  George  Olver  struck  up  a 
song.  Fve  heern  'em  sing  it  before,  them  two.  As 
nigh  as  I  calculate,  it's  about  findin*  rest  in  Jesus,  and 
one  a  askin'  questions,  all  fa'r  and  squar',  to  know 


14  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

the  way  and  whether  it's  a  goin'  to  lead  thar  straight 
or  no,  and  the  other  answerin'.  And  he — he  was  a 
tinkering  'way  up  on  the  foremast.  George  Olver 
and  the  rest  of  us  was  astern,  and  I'll  hear  to  my 
dyin'  day  how  his  voice  canie  a  floatin'  down  to  us 
thar— chantin' -like  it  was — cl'ar  and  fearless  and 
slow.  So  he  asks  for  findin'  Jesus,  ef  thar's  any 
marks  to  foller  by;  and  George,  he  answers  about 
them  bleedin'  nail-prints,  and  the  great  one  in  His 
side.  So  then  that  voice  conies  down  agin,  askin'  if 
thar's  any  crown,  like  other  kings,  to  tell  Him  by; 
and  George,  he  answered,  straight  about  that  crown 
of  thorns.  Then  says  that  other  voice,  floatin'  so 
strong  and  clear,  and  if  he  given  up  all  and  follered, 
what  should  he  have?  What  now?  So  George,  he 
sings  deep  o'  the  trial  and  the  sorrowin'.  But  that 
other  voice  never  shook  a  askin',  and  what  if  he  helt 
to  Him  to  the  end,  what  then  should  it  be — what 
then?  George  Olver  answers,  'Forevermore  the  sor- 
rowing ended — Death  gone  over/  Then  he  sings  out, 
like  his  mind  was  all  made  up,  'And  if  he  undertook 
it,  would  he  likely  be  turned  away?'  'And  it's  like- 
lier,' George  answered  him  'that  heaven  and  earth 
shall  pass.'  So  I'll  hear  it  to  my  dyin'  day — his  voice 
a  floatin'  clown  to  me  from  up  above  thar,  askin' 
them  questions  that  nobody  could  ever  answer  like  so 
soon  he  answered  'em  for  himself." 


III. 

Veni  Creator  Spiritus. 

MOXG  the  few  hymns  of  antiquity  which 
have  not  suffered  by  the  ravages  of  time  is 
the  celebrated  Veni  Creator  Spiritus.  It 
has  been  in  constant  use  for  almost  ten  centuries, 
and  in  the  value  of  its  service  to  the  Church  it  is 
surpassed  only  by  The  Te  Deum,  and  possibly  the 
Doxology.  It  has  been  rendered  into  English  a  greater 
number  of  times  than  any  other  Latin  hymn,  except- 
ing perhaps  The  Dies  Irae.  Fifty-four  English 
translations  and  paraphrases  are  known  to  have  been 
made,  and  yet  "the  noble  hymn  has  not  been 
stripped  of  all  its  dignity."  The  version  in  common 
use  was  made  by  John  Cosin,  Bishop  of  Durham, 
England,  in  1627,  and  was  introduced  into  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  in  1662,  and  is  as  follows: 

Come,  Holy  Ghost,  our  souls  inspire, 

And  lighten  with  celestial  fire; 

Thou  the  anointing  Spirit  art, 

Who    dost    Thy    sevenfold    gifts    impart: 

Thy  blessed  unction  from  above 

Is  comfort,  life,  and  fire  of  love. 

Enable   with   perpetual   light 
The  dullness  of  our  blinded  sight: 
Anoint  and  cheer  our  soiled  face 
With  the  abundance  of  Thy  grace: 
Keep  far  our  foes,  give  peace  at  home; 
Where  Thou  art   Guide  no   ill  can  come. 


16  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Teach  us  to  know  the  Father,  Son, 
And  Thee,  of  Both,  to  be  but  One; 
That  through  the  ages  all  along 
This  may  be  our  endless  song, 
Praise   to   Thy  eternal  merit, 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit. 


Amen. 


John  Dry  den,  the  monarch  of  the  literary  world 

in  the  seventeenth  century,  made  a  paraphrase  that 

begins, 

Creator   Spirit,   by   whose   aid, 

which  was  preferred  by  John  Wesley  and  Augustus 
M.  Toplady,  and  the  former  placed  it  in  his  hymnal 
as  early  as  1738.  But  the  version  that  has  gained 
the  wider  currency  in  the  United  States  is  that  by 
Bishop  Cosin.  However,  there  are  several  noted 
translations  of  the  hymn,  and  in  one  form  or  another, 
it  is  found  in  almost  every  prominent  hymnal  in 
Great  Britain  and  America. 

It  is  not  strange  that  so  much  uncertainty 
gathers  about  the  origin  of  some  of  the  noblest  of 
our  ancient  hymns.  Their  journey  down  the  ages 
has  been  long,  and  beset  with  many  perils.  While 
empires  were  being  overturned  and  governments 
were  crumbling  to  pieces,  the  names  of  some  of  the 
sacred  singers  were  lost  in  the  wreck  of  transitory 
things,  but  their  songs  have  withstood  the  storms  of 
time,  and  are  now  safely  lodged  in  the  heart  of  the 
Church. 

The  world  will  never  know  who  first  sang  the 
magnificent   Te  Deum,   or  the  sweet  Veni   Sancte 


YEN  I   CREATOR  SPIRITUS.  17 

Spiritus,  or  Jerusalem,  my  Happy  Home;  and  Veni 
Creator  Spiritus,  which  has  so  deeply  attracted  the 
hearts  of  men,  has  its  genesis  involved  in  mystery. 
Some  believe  that  it  is  the  work  of  St.  Ambrose,  and 
often  it  has  been  attributed  to  Gregory  the  Great, 
to  whom  England  is  indebted  for  her  first  lesson  in 
Christianity. 

There  is  a  pretty  little  legend  associated  with  this 
hymn  which  is  worth  re-telling.  In  870,  or  there- 
about, a  monk  named  Balbulus  Notker,  lived  in  the 
monastery  of  St.  Gall,  Switzerland;  and  one  night 
he  became  sleepless,  and  from  his  dormitory  could 
hear  the  constant  groaning  of  a  water-wheel  whose 
supply  was  running  low,  and  this  suggested  to  him 
the  idea  of  setting  its  melancholy  moaning  to  music. 
Thereupon  he  composed  the  Sequence  on  the  Holy 
Spirit,  which  he  sent  to  Charlemagne,  and  the  Em- 
peror returned  the  compliment  by  presenting  Notker 
with  the  words  of  Veni  Creator  Spiritus.  Lord  Sel- 
borne,  who  wrote  the  article  on  Hymnology  for 
the  last  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  seems 
to  believe  that  there  is  an  air  of  truth  in  this  story  on 
account  of  its  dramatic  character,  but  suggests  that 
it  was  not  Charles  the  Great  to  whom  Notker  sent 
the  Sequence,  but  his  grandson  Charles  the  Fat, 
known  among  German  Emperors  as  Charles  III.,  and 
with  whom  the  monk  was  on  terms  of  friendship. 

In  1896,  the  Et.  Eev.  Dr.  Henry  C.  Potter,  Bishop 
of  New  York,  delivered  an  important  lecture  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Church  Club  of  that  city,  on  The 


18  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Hymns  of  the  Ordinal,  in  which  he  pays  a  fine  tribute 
to  Veni  Creator  Spiritus.  While  admitting  that  no 
more  interesting  page  can  be  found  in  Christian 
history  than  that  on  which  the  story  of  this  hymn 
is  written,  the  Bishop  expresses  himself  unable  to 
settle  in  his  own  mind  the  question  of  authorship. 
There  are  two  points,  however,  on  which  most  writers 
think  alike — first,  that  it  is  a  great  hymn;  and 
second,  that  the  earliest  instance  on  record  as  to  its 
use  is  A.  D.,  898. 

For  a  thousand  years  Veni  Creator  Spiritus  has 
been  used  in  public  worship,  and  on  such  inspiring 
occasions  as  the  coronation  of  Kin^s  and  Queens,  the 
consecration  of  Bishops,  the  ordination  of  priests, 
the  convening  of  synods,  and  the  opening  of  Con- 
ferences. The  late  Dr.  Hemenway  of  the  Garrett 
Biblical  Institute,  believed  that  no  hymn  has 
had  a  more  honorable  recognition  in  the  service  of 
both  Protestant  and  Catholic  divisions  of  the  Church 
than  Veni  Creator  Spiritus. 

After  the  Eeformation  Veni  Creator  Spiritus  was 
one  of  the  first  of  the  ancient  hymns  to  be  translated 
into  English  and  German.  It  is  the  only  metrical 
hymn  of  the  many  in  use  in  the  Church  of  England 
before  the  Reformation,  which,  sanctioned  by  the 
authorities  of  both  Church  and  State,  has  found  a 
place  in  the  venerable  Liturgy  of  that  Church. 


IV. 
The  Dies  Irae. 


rl\ 


WENTY-FIVE  hundred  and  thirty  years 
ago,  Zephaniah,  one  of  the  Minor  Proph- 
ets, uttered  a  prophetic  description  of  the 
"Great  Day  of  the  Lord."  It  was  an  awful  picture 
of  the  impending  doom  of  Judah,  a  foretelling  of  the 
fall  of  Nineveh,  and  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 
It  is  supposed  that  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  verses 
of  the  first  chapter  of  that  prophecy  inspired  the 
greatest  judgment  hymn  of  the  ages — a  hymn  that 
has  allured  and  eluded  more  translators  than  any 
other  poetical  composition  in  any  language. 

In  the  closing  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  pos- 
sibly about  1185,  a  monk  named  Thomas  was  born 
in  the  town  of  Celano,  now  found  in  the  province  of 
Aquila,  in  Central  Italy,  and  to  him  is  ascribed  the 
authorship  of  The  Dies  Irae,  the  most  solemn  and 
dramatic  song  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Thomas  of 
Celano,  as  he  is  universally  known,  was  a  member  of 
the  Franciscans,  an  order  founded  by  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi,  whose  biography  he  wrote  at  the  request  of 
Pope  Gregory  IX.  Francis  was  a  man  of  remark- 
able personality,  and  Protestants  as  well  as  Catholics 
speak  of  him  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  figures  in 
the  history  of  the  Ancient  Church.  Thomas  calls 
him  the  most  perfect  realization  of  the  Christian 


20  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

ideal  that  either  he  or  his  century  could  conceive  of. 

Many  noble  hymns  have  come  down  to  us  from 
medieval  times,  but  "beyond  them  all,  before  them 
all,  and  above  them  all,"  stands  The  Dies  Irae.  It 
is  the  acknowledged  masterpiece  of  Latin  Church 
poetry,  and  the  most  solemn  and  awe  inspiring  com- 
position in  the  whole  range  of  hymnology.  Guericke, 
that  master  in  German  Protestant  theology,  says  the 
hymn  is  "unearthly  in  its  pathos  and  magnificent 
in  its  diction,  and  makes  the  inmost  soul  tremble 
with  its  triple  hammerstrokes  of  triple  rhyme/1 
There  is  so  much  sublimity  and  force  in  its  thought, 
and  impressive  solemnity  in  its  verse,  that  literary 
men  and  secular  poets,  as  well  as  men  in  full  sym- 
pathy with  its  feelings,  hold  it  in  supreme  admira- 
tion. And  while  this  terrible  judgment  hymn  may 
have  been  the  natural  voice  of  the  times  that  gave 
it  birth,  no  part  of  it  is  too  harsh  or  dissonant  to 
the  cultured  minds  and  the  enlightened  Christian 
sentiment  of  the  first  year  of  the  twentieth  century. 

The  grasp  that  The  Dies  Irae  has  upon  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  men  of  many  nations  and 
varying  creeds,  is  illustrated  in  the  fact  that  no  other 
hymn  has  so  largely  commanded  the  attention  of 
linguists.  Every  rank  and  profession,  representing 
many  countries,  languages,  and  creeds,  is  found 
among  its  translators — editors  and  professors,  lawyers 
and  physicians,  poets  and  novelists,  statesmen  and 
historians,  men  of  war  and  masters  in  science,  minis- 
ters and  priests,  and  cardinals  and  bishops. 


THE   DIES   IRAE.  21 

Among  the  translations,  or  perhaps  what  is  better, 

the  paraphrases  of  The  Uies  Irae,  which  have  become 

celebrated,    that  by  Sir   Walter  Scott    is  the    most 

admired.     He  introduces  it  with  marvelous  effect 

in  his  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  at  the  requiem  in 

Melrose  Abbey: 

Then  mass  was  sung,  and  prayers  were  said, 

And  solemn  requiem  for  the  dead, 

And  bells  tolled  out  their  mighty  peal, 

For  the  departed  spirit's  weal; 

And  ever  in  the  office  close 

The  hymn  of  intercession  rose; 

And  far  the  echoing  aisles  prolong 

The  awful  burden  of  the  song — 

'Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 

Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla;' 

While  the  pealing  organ  rung; 
Were  it  meet  with  sacred  strain 
To  close  ray  lay,  so  light  and  vain, 

Thus  the  holy  fathers  sung: 

That  day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  day, 
When  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
What  power  shall  be  the  sinner's  stay? 
How  shall  he  meet  that  dreadful  day? 

When,  shriveling  like  a  parched  scroll, 
The  flaming  heavens  together  roll; 
When  louder  yet,  and  yet  more  dread, 
Swells  the  high  trump  that  wakes  the  dead! 

Oh!  on  that  day,  that  wrathful  day, 
When  man  to  judgment  wakes  from  clay, 
Be  Thou  the  trembling  sinner's  stay, 
Though  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away! 

Other  versions  may  surpass  Scott's  in  exactitude  of 
translation,  but  none  of  them  equals  his  in  poetic 


22  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

feeling,  simplicity,  or  devotion;  and  for  this  reason 
his  hymn  of  three  stanzas  has  a  permanent  place 
in  English  hymnody.  William  E.  Gladstone,  in  a 
speech  delivered  at  Hawarden  in  1866,  said:  "I 
know  nothing  more  sublime  in  the  writings  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott — certainly  I  know  nothing  so  sublime 
in  any  portion  of  the  sacred  poets  of  modern  times, 
I  mean  of  the  present  century — as  the  Hymn  for  the 
Dead,  extending  only  to  twelve  lines,  which  he 
embodies  in  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel." 

In  Great  Britain  the  full  version  of  The  Dies 
Irae  by  W.  J.  Irons  is  most  commonly  accepted 
because  it  is  thought  to  represent  more  vividly  the 
spirit  of  the  original.  There  is  an  incident  of  unusual 
interest  connected  with  his  translation  of  the  hymn. 
In  1848  Paris  was  in  a  state  of  revolution.  Among 
the  many  deeds  of  bloodshed  committed  during  that 
terrible  time  was  the  shooting  of  Archbishop  Affre 
who  fell  on  the  barricade  of  Place  de  la  Bastile  on 
the  twenty-fifth  of  June,  while  exercising  his  good 
offices  to  allay  the  murderous  passion  of  the  insur- 
gents. Lest  a  public  burial  of  the  Archbishop  might 
create  an  excitement  that  would  burst  into  fury,  the 
body  was  taken  quietly  to  the  grave  ten  days  after 
the  assassination,  and  as  soon  as  the  state  of  public 
mind  would  permit,  his  funeral  rites  were  held  in 
Notre  Dame.  In  sadness  and  impressiveness  the 
service  was  the  most  remarkable  ever  witnessed  in 
Paris.  The  heart  of  the  Archbishop  was  exposed 
in  a  glass  case  in  the  choir,  and  an  indescribable 


THE   DIES  IRAE.  23 

degree  of  solemnity  was  added  to  the  occasion  by 
the  singing  of  The  Dies  Irae  by  a  large  body  of 
priests.  Dr.  Irons  was  in  Notre  Dame  throughout 
the  requiem  service  and  was  so  deeply  moved  by 
the  grand  rendering  of  the  Judgment  Hymn  that 
he  determined  to  make  an  English  translation  of  it, 
which  was  accomplished  before  he  left  Paris  and 
while  the  wonderful  scene  at  the  Cathedral  was  fresh 
in  his  mind.  His  version  was  first  intended  for 
private  use,  but  in  1849  it  was  published  with  the 
music  used  in  the  Notre  Dame  service. 

The  United  States  and  Germany  lead  all  other 
countries  in  the  number  of  translations  of  The  Dies 
Irae.  In  1841  there  were  only  two  versions  known 
in  America,  and  both  were  anonymous;  but  since  that 
time  the  number  has  reached  fully  one  hundred. 
The  Eev.  Samuel  Willoughby  Duffield  says  the  Ger- 
man versions  number  about  ninety,  and  Dr.  John 
Julian,  a  good  English  authority,  credits  Great  Brit- 
ain with  ninety-three.  The  American  translations 
which  have  attained  the  greater  popularity  are  those 
made  by  Dr.  Abraham  Coles,  of  New  Jersey;  Mr. 
Edward  Slosson  of  the  New  York  bar;  and  Major- 
General  John  Adams  Dix.  Coles  was  a  physician, 
and  a  linguist  of  rare  ability,  and  in  the  course  of  his 
remarkable  life  he  made  seventeen  different  render- 
ings of  The  Dies  Irae,  and  two  of  his  stanzas  have 
gained  currency  by  Mrs.  Stowe's  use  of  them  in  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin.  Mr.  Franklin  Johnson  of  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  devoted  the  spare  hours  of  fifteen 


24  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

years  to  the  making  of  his  translation  of  the  hymn, 
and  then  it  did  not  reach  his  ideal.  The  Latin 
verse  of  the  Franciscan  monk  appears  simple  and 
easy  at  first  glance,  "but  there  is  a  mystery  in  its 
lines  that  baffles  the  skill  of  many  translators. 

The  American  version  which  perhaps  has  received 
the  warmest  commendation  of  men  of  letters  in 
England  and  Germany  as  well  as  in  the  United 
States,  is  that  by  General  Dix,  of  which  the  following 
is  the  full  text: 

Day  of  vengeance,  without  morrow! 
Earth  shall  end  in  flame  and  sorrow, 
As  from  saint  and  seer  we  borrow. 

Ah!    what   terror   is   impending, 
When  the  Judge  is  seen  descending, 
And  each  secret  veil  is  rending! 

To  the  throne,  the  trumpet  sounding, 
Through  the  sepulchres  resounding, 
Summons  all,  with  voice  astounding. 

Death  and  Nature,  mazed,  are  quaking, 
When,  the  grave's  long  slumber  breaking, 
Man  to  judgment  is  awaking. 

On  the  written  Volume's  pages, 
Life  is  shown  in  all  its  stages — 
Judgment-record  of  past  ages! 

Sits  the  Judge,  the  raised  arraigning, 
Darkest  mysteries  explaining, 
Nothing   unavenged   remaining. 

What  shall  I  then  say,  unfriended, 

By  no  advocate  attended, 

When  the  just  are  scarce  defended. 


THE  DIES  IRAE.  25 

King  of  Majesty  tremendous, 
By  Thy  saving  grace  defend  us; 
Fount  of  pity,  safety  send  us! 

Holy  Jesus!  meek,  forbearing, 

For  my  sins  the  death-crown  wearing, 

Save  me,  in  that  day,  despairing. 

Worn  and  weary,  Thou  hast  sought  me; 
By  Thy  cross  and  passion  bought  me; — 
Spare  the  hope  Thy  labors  brought  me. 

Righteous  Judge  of  retribution, 
Give,  oh,  give  me  absolution 
Eire  the  day  of  dissolution. 

As  a  guilty  culprit  groaning, 
Flushed  my  face,  my  errors  owning, 
Hear,  0  God,  my  spirit's  moaning! 

Thou  to  Mary  gav'st  remission, 
Heard'st  the  dying  thief's  petition, 
Bad'st  me  hope  in  my  contrition. 

In  my  prayers  no  grace  discerning, 
Yet  on  me  Thy  favor  turning, 
Save  my  soul  from  endless  burning! 

Give  me,  when  Thy  sheep  confiding 
Thou  art  from  the  goats  dividing, 
On  Thy  right   a   place  abiding! 

When  the  wicked  are  confounded, 
And  by  bitter  flames  surrounded, 
Be  my  joyful  pardon  sounded! 

Prostrate  all  my  guilt  discerning, 
Heart  as  though  to  ashes  turning; 
Save,  oh,  save  me  from  the  burning! 


26  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Day  of  weeping,  when  from  ashes 
Man   shall   rise   'mid   lightning   flashes, 
Guilty,   trembling  with   contrition, 
Save    him,    Father,   from   perdition! 

This  translation  was  made  at  Fort  Monroe  in  1863 
while  the  general  was  in  command  of  the  Department 
of  Virginia.  His  well  known  version  of  the  famous 
Stabat  Mater  was  made  while  minister  to  France  in 
1869.    In  speaking  of  his  Dies  Irae,  he  says: 

"It  is  the  fruit  of  leisure  moments  gained  from 
the  hard  service  of  the  camp,  'on  Confederate  soil, 
but  within  Union  entrenchments.  If  in  the  ages  of 
paganism  the  strings  of  the  Lesbian  lyre  might  be,  not 
unworthily,  swept  by  hands  inured  to  arms,  a  soldier 
in  a  Christian  age  may  not  less  worthily  find  relief 
from  the  asperities  of  war  in  themes  more  congenial 
with  the  higher  dispensation  which  he  is,  by  the 
Providence  of  God,  permitted  to  share." 

Mr.  George  Ticknor,  of  high  literary  fame,  whose 
life  was  peculiarly  rich  in  that  class  of  associations 
and  interests  which  properly  belong  to  our  best  liter- 
ature, wrote  General  Dix  from  Boston,  in  February, 
1864,  as  follows: 

"It  was  not  without  a  feeling  of  embarrassment 
that  I  asked  my  friend  Mr.  Curtis,  to  obtain  for 
me  a  copy  of  your  privately  printed  marvelous  trans- 
lation of  The  Dies  Irae.  Nor  is  it  without  a  similar 
feeling  that  I  now  ask  you  to  accept  from  me  a 
copy  of  the  life  of  my  friend  Prescott,  which  I 
published  a  few  weeks  since.     You  will,  therefore, 


TEE   DIES   IRAE.  27 

allow  me  to  beg  of  you  not  to  look  on  it  as  an  attempt 
to  make  an  exchange  with  you;  for  if  such  were  my 
purpose,  I  should  feel  obliged  to  pray  Jupiter  that 
he  would  make  you  willing  to  take  copper  for  gold 
as  in  the  memorable  case  of  Diomedes  and  Glaucu3." 
The  Dies  Irae  is  inseparably  "associated  in  the 
history  of  music  with  Mozart's  Requiem,  the  master- 
piece of  that  extraordinary  genius,  which  is  itself 
like  a  wondrous  trumpet  spreading  wondrous 
sounds."  Gretchen,  the  heroine  in  Goethe's  Faust, 
is  a  character  of  charming  innocency  and  affection. 
The  author  introduces  The  Dies  Irae  in  the  Cathe- 
dral scene  at  the  end  of  the  first  act,  making  her 
"faint  with  dismay  and  horror  as  she  hears  it  sung, 
and  from  that  moment  of  salutary  pain  she  becomes 
another  woman."  it  is  said  that  Dr.  Samuel  John- 
son was  so  profoundly  moved  by  the  solemn  grand- 
eur of  the  hymn  that  he  could  not  restrain  the  flow 
of  tears  whenever  he  read  the  tenth  stanza — 

Worn  and  weary,  Thou  hast  sought  me; 
By  Thy  cross  and  passion  bought  me; 
Spare  the  hope  Thy  labors  brought  me. 

Lockhart,  the  son-in-law  and  biographer  of  Sir 
"Walter  Scott,  says  when  the  great  novelist  lay  dying 
he  would  frequently  repeat  a  portion  of  his  own 
version  of  The  Dies  Irae — 

Be   Thou   the   trembling   sinner's   stay, 
Though  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away. 

Andreas    Justinus  Kerner,    the    noted    German 


28  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

poet,  has  given  in  his  Wahnsinnige  Bruder  (The 
Four  Crazed  Brothers)  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
overwhelming  power  of  The  Dies  Irae  upon  minds 
hardened  in  sin,  "but  suddenly  awakened  to  reflec- 
tion by  its  thunders  of  the  Day  of  Judgment." 
Carlyle  tells  us  that  the  celebrated  German  tragedian, 
Friedrich  Ludwig  Zacharias  Werner,  who  was  three 
times  married  and  three  times  divorced,  and  in  later 
life  became  a  Koman  Catholic  priest,  quotes  the 
eighth  stanza  of  the  hymn  in  his  last  testament  as  his 
reason  for  not  having  written  either  a  defense  or 
an  accusation  of  his  strange  life:  "With  trembling 
I  reflect  that  I  myself  shall  first  learn  in  its  whole 
terrible  compass  what  I  properly  was,  when  these 
lines  shall  be  read  by  men;  that  is  to  say,  a  point 
of  time  which  for  me  will  be  no  time;  in  a  condition 
in  which  all  experience  will  for  me  be  too  late — 

King  of  Majesty  tremendous, 

By   Thy   saving  grace   defend   us; 

Fount  of  pity,  safety  send  us." 

The  grandeur  of  The  Dies  Irae  has  made  an  abid- 
ing impression  on  the  heart  of  Christendom;  and 
the  use  of  translations  or  paraphrases  of  the  hymn  is 
universal  in  all  English-speaking  lands.  The  render- 
ings by  John  Newton,  Dean  Stanley,  Charles  Wesley, 
and  Sir  Walter  Scott,  are  perhaps  the  most  suitable 
for  public  worship,  and  one  or  more  of  them  will 
be  found  in  every  prominent  hymnal  of  the  present 
day. 


THE   DIES   IRAE.  29 

It  is  small  wonder  that  The  Dies  Irae  has  fastened 
itself  on  the  thoughts  of  the  brightest  minds  of  the 
modern  world.  One  common  end  awaits  a  common 
humanity.  However  diversified  our  paths  they  con- 
verge toward  that  common  center — the  judgment  seat 
of  Christ.  The  story  of  the  hymn  tells  us  that  the 
masters  in  our  best  literature,  and  the  greatest  intel 
lects  in  the  world,  are  not  insensible  of  the  impressive 
declaration  of  Scripture:  "It  is  appointed  unto  men 
once  to  die,  and  after  that  the  judgment." 


V. 
A  Mighty  Fortress  is  Our  God. 

HERE  are  two  hymns  which  stand  alone 


as  having  changed  the  course  of  two  great 
Nations — Ein  feste  Burg,  the  triumphant 
war-cry  of  the  German  Reformation;  and  The  Mar- 
seillaise, the  blood-stirring  song  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. In  the  mightiness  of  their  influence  these 
hymns  have  never  been  equaled. 

The  Reformation  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
richest  hymnology  in  the  world.  The  German  love 
for  music  antedated  Luther's  time,  but  the  Church 
being  then  dominated  by  Rome,  hymn-singing  in 
the  vernacular  was  discouraged,  and  hence  hymns 
filled  an  exceedingly  small  place  in  public  worship. 
This  was  the  state  of  Church-song  in  Germany 
when  Luther  was  born  in  Eisleben,  in  1483.  While 
in  childhood  the  poor  miner's  son  sang  from  door 
to  door  in  his  native  village,  and  then,  and  always, 
his  soul  was  overflowing  with  music.  He  was  as 
pious  as  he  was  musical,  and  it  was  no  wonder  that 
in  time  he  took  himself  to  a  monastery,  and  became 
a  self-tormented  monk.  His  rule  of  life  while  there 
is  expressed  in  his  own  sentence:  "If  ever  a  monk  got 
to  heaven  by  monkery,  I  was  determined  to  get 
there."  But  the  day  soon  came  when  Luther  craved 
emancipation  from  the  horrible  darkness  in  which 


A  MIGHTY  FORTRESS  IS  OUR  GOD.  31 

he  lived,  and  from  the  terrible  slavery  to  Pharisaism 
in  which  he  was  placed.  He  was  thirty-four  years 
old  when  he  nailed  to  the  Church  door  at  Wittenberg, 
the  ninety-five  theses  on  the  doctrine  of  indulgences; 
and  three  years  later  the  climax  of  his  courage  was 
reached  when  he  publicly  burned  the  Papal  bull  of 
excommunication. 

After  Luther  gave  the  German  people  a  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible,  he  abolished  the  monotonous 
chants  of  medieval  times,  and  substituted  German 
hymns  for  Latin  hymns  and  sequences.  One  day  in 
writing  to  his  friend  and  fellow-laborer,  Georg 
Spalatin,  Luther  said:  "It  is  my  intention,  after  the 
example  of  the  fathers,  to  make  German  psalms  for 
the  people;  that  is  to  say,  spiritual  songs,  whereby 
the  Word  of  God  may  be  kept  alive  among  them 
by  singing.  We  seek,  therefore,  everywhere  for  poets. 
Now  as  you  are  such  a  master  of  the  German  tongue, 
and  are  so  mighty  and  eloquent  therein,  I  entreat 
you  to  join  hands  with  us  in  this  work,  and  to  turn 
one  of  the  Psalms  into  a  hymn  according  to  the 
pattern  (i.  e.  an  attempt  of  my  own),  that  I  send 
you.  But  I  desire  that  all  new-fangled  words  from 
the  Court  should  be  left  out;  that  the  words  may  be 
quite  plain  and  common,  such  as  common  people  may 
understand,  yet  pure,  and  skillfully  handled;  and 
next,  that  the  meaning  should  be  given  clearly  and 
graciously,  according  to  the  sense  of  the  Psalm  it- 
self." 

Luther  was  a  fine  singer  and  a  skilled  composer; 


32  HYMtfS  HISrORICALL?  FAMOtiS. 

and  possessing  a  magnetic  enthusiasm  in  urging  con- 
gregational singing,  he  gave  a  marvelous  impulse  to 
the  business  of  hymn-writing  and  the  joy  of  hymn- 
singing.  One  year  before  Luther's  death,  Spangen- 
berg  said:  "It  is  true  and  will  remain  true,  that 
among  all  master-singers  from  the  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles until  now,  Luther  is  and  always  will  be  the  best 
and  most  accomplished;  in  whose  hymns  and  songs 
one  does  not  find  a  vain  or  needless  word." 

The  first  hymn-book  of  the  Reformation,  which 
in  reality  was  the  first  of  all  printed  hymn-books, 
was  published  at  Wittenberg  in  1524,  seven  years 
after  Luther  nailed  the  theses  to  the  door  of  the 
Church  in  that  city.  It  contained  eight  hymns  with 
tunes,  and  four  of  them  were  by  Luther.  Ein  feste 
Burg  was  not  in  the  collection,  but  followed  in  the 
course  of  five  or  six  years.  The  translation  of  the 
hymn  usually  found  in  the  hymnals  of  American 
Churches,  was  made  by  Br.  Frederic  Henry  Hedge, 
for  many  years  professor  of  German  literature  and 
Ecclesiastical  history  at  Harvard  University.  His 
version  appeared  in  1853,  while  he  was  pastor  of  a 
Unitarian  Church  at  Providence,  Ehode  Island,  and 
is  as  follows: 

A  mighty  fortress  is  our  God, 

A  bulwark  never  failing: 
Our  Helper  He,   amid  the  flood 

Of  mortal  ills  prevailing. 
For  still  our  ancient  foe 
Doth  seek  to  work  us  woe; 
His  craft  and  power  are  great, 
And,  armed  with  cruel  hate, 

On  earth  is  not  His  equal. 


A  MIGHTY  FORTRESS  IS  OUR  GOD.  33 

Did  we  in  our  own  strength  confide, 

Our  striving  would  be  losing; 
Were  not  the  right  man  on  our  side, 

The  man  of  God's  own  choosing. 
Dost  ask  who  that  may  be? 
Christ  Jesus,  it  is  He; 
Lord  Sabaoth  is  His  name, 
From  age   to   age   the   same, 

And  He  must  win  the  battle. 

And  though  this  world,  with  devils  filled, 

Should  threaten  to  undo  us; 
We  will  not  fear,  for  God  hath  willed 

His  truth  to  triumph  through  us. 
The  Prince  of  darkness  grim — 
We  tremble  not  for  him; 
His  rage  we  can  endure, 
For  lo!  his  doom  is  sure, 

One  little  word  shall  fell  him. 

That  word  above  all  earthly  powers- 
No  thanks  to  them — abideth; 

The  Spirit  and  the  gifts  are  ours 
Through  Him  who  with  us  sideth. 

Let  goods  and  kindred  go, 

This  mortal  life  also: 

The  body  they  may  kill: 

God's  truth  abideth  still, 
His  kingdom  is  forever. 

I  append  a  translation  by  Thomas  Carlyle,  made  in 
1831,  which  English  critics  regard  as  more  faith- 
ful and  forceful  than  any  other  version  in  the  English 
language.  He  considers  Ein  feste  Burg  the  world's 
most  powerful  hymn,  and  though  it  "may  jar  upon 
English  ears,  there  is  something  in  it  like  the  sound 
of  Alpine  avalanches,  or  the  first  murmur  of  earth- 
quakes :" 


34  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

A  sure  stronghold  our  God  is  He. 

A  trusty  shield  and  weapon; 
Our  help  He'll  be,  and  set  us  free 
From  every  ill  can  happen. 
That  old  malicious  foe 
Intends  us  deadly  woe; 
Armed  with  might  from  hell 
And  deepest  craft  as  well, 
On  earth  is  not  his  fellow. 

Through  our  own  force  we  nothing  can, 

Straight  were  we  lost  forever; 

But  for  us  fights  the  proper  man 

By  God  sent  to  deliver. 

Ask  ye  who  this  may  be? 

Christ  Jesus  named  is  He; 

Of   Sabaoth   the  Lord; 

Sole   God   to  be   adored; 

'Tis  He  must  win  the  battle. 

And  weTe  the  world  with  devils  filled, 

All  eager  to  devour  us, 
Our  souls  to  fear  should  little  yield, 
They  cannot  overpower  us. 
Their  dreaded  prince  no  more 
Can  harm   us  as   of  yore; 
Look  grim  as  e'er  he  may, 
Doomed  is  his  ancient  sway; 
A  word  can  overthrow  him. 

God's  word  for  all  their  craft  and  force 

One  moment  will  not  linger; 
But  spite  of  hell  shall  have  its  course, 
'Tis  written  by  His  finger. 
And   though   they  take   our  life, 
Goods,  honor,  children,  wife; 
Yet  is  there  profit  small: 
These  things  shall  vanish  all: 
The  city  of  God  remaineth. 


A  MIGHTY  FORTRESS  IS  OUR  GOD.  35 

Historians  of  the  [Reformation  do  not  agree  as 
to  the  occasion  that  produced  Ein  feste  Burg. 
Leonard  Woolsey  Bacon,  in  his  Hymns  of  Luther, 
published  in  1883,  in  commemoration  of  the  four 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  reformer's  birth-day, 
says  the  hymn  first  appeared  in  1529,  probably  for 
the  Diet  of  Spires,  at  which  time  the  German  princes 
"made  their  formal  Protest  against  the  revocation 
of  their  liberties,  and  thus  gained  the  name  of 
Protestants." 

William  T.  Stead  says  Ein  feste  Burg  was  "the 
spiritual  and  national  tonic  of  Germany,  and  was 
administered  in  those  "dolorous  times  as  doctors 
would  administer  quinine  to  sojourners  in  fever- 
haunted  marshes."  Everybody  sang  it,  children  on 
the  streets,  men  and  women  in  the  fields,  great 
congregations  in  Churches,  and  soldiers  in  battle. 
It  was  an  inspiration  to  Luther  himself  in  times 
of  unusual  peril.  When  darkness  came  over  the 
Eeformation  which  seemed  to  forebode  the  loss  of 
all  that  had  been  gained,  he  would  turn  to  his  com- 
panion, Melancthon,  and  say,  "Come,  Philip,  let  us 
sing  the  Forty-sixth  Psalm,"  meaning  Ein  feste 
Burg,  his  own  characteristic  version.  "Only  the 
idea  of  the  Stronghold  is  taken  from  the  Scrip- 
ture, the  rest  is  Luther's  own,  made  in  Germany, 
and  not  only  so,  but  one  of  the  most  potent  influ- 
ences that  have  contributed  to  the  making  of  Ger- 
many." 

The  influences  of  the  hymn  did  not  pass  away 


36  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

with  Luther.  It  has  never  failed  to  be  "a  potent 
spell  over  German  hearts."  When  Melancthon  and 
his  co-workers,  Jonas  and  Crueiger,  were  banished 
from  Wittenberg  in  ,1547,  the  year  after  Luther's 
death,  they  took  refuge  in  Weimar,  and  on  entering 
the  city  their  hearts  were  gladdened  and  their  cour- 
age strengthened  by  hearing  a  little  girl  singing  in 
a  sweet  voice  on  the  street,  Ein  feste  Burg.  Almost 
a  century  later,  when  Gustavus  Adolphus,  in  that 
awful  battle  near  Leipsic,  stood  between  the  Eefor- 
mation  and  its  loss,  he  called  upon  his  army  before 
the  struggle  began,  to  take  up  this  song  and  sing 
it  in  the  face  of  the  enemy.  It  was  sung  in  the  face 
of  the  enemy,  and  in  the  triumph  of  the  battle  it 
was  sung  again. 

On  the  gray,  misty  morning  in  November,  1632, 
Adolphus  and  Wallenstein,  both  hitherto  uncon- 
quered,  met  with  their  great  armies  on  the  plain  of 
Lutzen.  On  that  bloody  field  which  Adolphus  was 
to  water  with  his  own  life,  he  ordered  his  trumpeters 
to  blow  Ein  feste  Burg.  In  the  supreme  moment 
of  that  conflict  he  fell  covered  with  mortal  wounds. 
The  battle  was  hot  and  bloody,  and  went  on  for 
hours,  but  before  the  close  of  day,  the  army  that 
made  the  Forty-sixth  Psalm  its  battle-cry,  saw  the 
dead  King  "victor  of  the  field  on  which  with  his 
life  he  had  purchased  the  religious  liberties  of 
Northern  Europe." 

On  this  same  battle-field  of  Lutzen,  thousands 
assembled  on  the  fifteenth  of  September,  1882,  to 


A  MIGHTY  FORTRESS  IS  OUR  GOD.  37 

commemorate  the  jubilee  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
Society,  and  Ein  feste  Burg  was  sung  by  the  vast 
ooncourse.  Everybody  knew  the  words  and  music 
by  heart.  German  lungs  are  strong;  German  purpose 
is  vigorous.  "With  the  roll  of  a  mighty  stream  the 
compact  and  lusty  unison  filled  the  air,  and  moved 
the  hearts  of  the  great  gatherings  with  its  rugged, 
homely  strength." 

In  CasselFs  History  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War 
is  an  account  of  the  singing  of  Kinkart's  Now  Thank 
we  all  Our  God,  and  Ein  feste  Burg,  on  the  night 
following  the  battle  of  Sedan.  The  German  army 
was  on  the  march  for  Paris,  and  at  night  a  portion 
of  the  troops  were  lodged  in  the  parish  Church 
of  Augecourt.  The  men  wrere  overcome  by  excite- 
ment, and  were  literally  worn  out  by  the  strain  of 
the  terrible  battle  and  the  heaviness  of  the  march, 
and  sleep  seemed  impossible.  Finally,  unknown 
fingers  touched  the  organ,  softly  at  first,  then  with 
greater  force  came  the  familiar  tune  to  Now  Thank 
we  all  Our  God,  and  every  voice  joined  in  the  grand 
old  hymn.  Then  the  organist  began  Ein  feste  Burg, 
the  singing  of  which  had  nerved  the  soldiers  to 
such  deeds  of  courage  at  Sedan;  and  the  officers 
and  men  united  their  voices  in  a  magnificent  out- 
burst of  song.  The  effect  was  remarkable.  The 
dreadful  casualties  of  battle  and  the  fatigue  of  hard 
marching  were  forgotten,  and  with  hearts  full  of 
gratitude  the  men  spent  the  remainder  of  the  night 
in  peaceful  slumber. 


38  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

The  touching  confidence  with  which  Luther 
asked  in  his  letter  to  Spalatin  for  poets,  showed 
that  he  possessed  the  spirit  of  prophecy.  Hymns 
came  to  him  from  all  parts  of  the  German  Nation. 
And  since  that  time  German  hymns  have  multiplied 
to  a  degree  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  sacred 
song.  Dr.  Philip  Schaff  says:  "To  the  rich  treasury 
of  German  hymns,  men  and  women  of  all  ranks  and 
conditions,  from  theologians  and  princes  down  to 
common  laborers,  have  made  contributions,  laying 
them  on  the  altar  of  devotion,  until  the  number 
of  German  hymns  has  exceeded  one  hundred  thou- 
sand. Of  this  number  about  ten  thousand  have  been 
published  in  various  hymnals,  and  at  least  one  thou- 
sand are  classical  and  immortal." 


VI. 

The  Great  Doxology 

N    all  the  range    of    human    compositions 
there  cannot  be  found  a  nobler  ascription 
of  praise  than  the  four  lines  which  form 
Bishop  Ken's  Doxology: 

Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow; 
Praise  Him,  all  creatures  here  below; 
Praise  Him  above,  ye  heavenly  host; 
Praise  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost! 

Xo  product  of  the  heart  and  brain  of  man  has  echoed 
around  the  globe  so  often  as  this  simple  stanza; 
and  no  other  lines,  whether  poetry  or  prose — except- 
ing only  the  prayer  which  Jesus  taught  His  disciples 
— are  so  frequently  used  by  English-speaking  Chris- 
tians. 

Thomas  Ken  was  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
Bishops  England  ever  produced.  He  was  born  at 
Little  Berkhampstead,  in  1637.  His  mother  having 
died  during  his  childhood,  he  was  placed  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  brother-in-law,  the  devout  Izaak 
Walton,  distinguished  in  history  as  the  most  eminent 
angler  of  his  time.  Ken  was  educated  at  Westmin- 
ster, and  at  New  College,  Oxford.  In  1679,  when 
Princess  Mary,  wife  of  William  of  Orange  of  Hol- 
land, and  daughter  of  James,  the  King's  brother, 
asked  for  an  English  Chaplain  at  the  Hague,  Ken 


40  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

was  appointed  by  Charles  II.  The  Chaplain  was  a 
man  of  heroic  integrity  and  fearless  honesty,  and  in 
a  dispute  with  William  on  a  point  of  morality  con- 
nected with  the  coiirt,  Ken  quit  the  Hague  in  1680, 
and  on  his  return  to  England  was  appointed  one  of 
the  Chaplains  to  the  King. 

It  was  in  1683,  when  Charles  visited  Winches- 
ter, the  residence  of  the  Chaplain,  that  he  requested 
Ken  to  give  up  his  house  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  notorious  Nell  Gwynne.  The  Chaplain  had 
no  more  fear  of  Kings  than  of  the  humblest  inhabi- 
tant of  Winchester,  and  he  peremptorily  declined 
to  grant  Charles's  request.  As  bad  as  the  King 
was  he  had  honor  enough  to  commend  Ken's  hon- 
esty of  purpose,  and  when  the  bishopric  of  Bath 
and  Wells  became  vacant  the  following  year, 
Charles  inquired:  "Where  is  the  little  man  who 
wouldn't  give  poor  Nell  a  lodging?    Give  it  to  him." 

Twelve  days  after  Ken  was  consecrated  Bishop, 
Charles  died — February  sixth,  1685.  The  good  lit- 
tle Bishop  was  never  allured  by  the  glitter  of  the 
court  of  Kings,  and  in  1688  he  offended  James  II. 
by  refusing  to  read  the  Koyal  Declaration  of  Indul- 
gence, and  with  six  others  of  the  Episcopal  bench 
he  was  committed  to  the  Tower,  but  shortly  after- 
wards was  acquitted.  On  the  accession  of  William 
III.,  Ken  was  deprived  of  his  office  in  1691,  and 
after  an  eventful  life.,  through  which  he  bore  many 
troubles,  he  died  in  1711.  His  name  survives  chiefly 
from  his  morning  and  evening  hymns.    He  prepared 


THE  GREAT  DOXOLOGY.  41 

a  Manual  of  Prayer  for  the  students  at  Winchester 
College  in  1674,  and  in  one  edition  of  the  work, 
possibly  that  of  1681,  he  placed  his  three  hymns: 
Awake  my  Soul  and  with  the  Sun;  All  Praise  to 
Thee  my  God  this  Xight;  My  God,  now  I  from 
Sleep  Awake.  Each  of  these  hymns  closed  with  the 
stanza  that  has  become  the  famous  Doxology. 

This  incomparable  Doxology  has  taken  hold  of  the 
Christian  world  as  no  other  metrical  lines  have. 
I  think  it  was  Theodore  Parker,  the  widely  known 
Unitarian  minister,  who  said  that  these  four  lines 
by  Bishop  Ken  had  done  more  to  familiarize  the 
English-speaking  peoples  of  the  earth  with  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  than  all  the  theological  books 
ever  written.  The  history  made  by  this  Doxology 
is  considerable  and  important,  but  on  account  of 
limited  space  only  a  few  illustrations  can  be  given. 

During  the  cotton  famine  in  England  caused  by 
the  Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  the  suffering, 
particularly  in  Lancashire,  was  pitiable  in  the 
extreme.  But  in  all  the  weary  months  of  waiting 
for  the  coming  of  better  days  the  conduct  of  the 
operatives  won  the  admiration  of  the  world.  The 
saying  that  "hope  is  the  poor  man's  bread/'  was 
true  in  this  instance.  In  gathering  for  worship  on 
Sundays,  in  assembling  for  praise  services  in  mid- 
week, and  in  many  impoverished  homes,  the  people 
could  still  sing  with  strong  hearts  and  clear  voices, 

Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow. 


42  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

And  the  story  is  told  that  when  the  first  load  of 
cotton  reached  one  town  it  was  drawn  from  the 
railway  station  to  the  mill  by  the  operatives.  As 
the  procession  moved  through  the  streets  the  scene 
was  as  joyous  and  imposing  as  a  triumphal  march. 
Praise  and  gladness  had  taken  possession  of  the 
people,  and  hundreds  of  voices  swelled  in  the  heart- 
cheering  strains  of  the  Doxology. 

Chaplain  McCabe,  now  one  of  the  Bishops  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  is  credited  with  a  story 
of  how  the  Doxology  saved  the  prisoners  in  Libby, 
at  Bichmond,  from  absolute  despair.  Day  after  day 
they  saw  comrades  pass  away  and  "their  numbers 
increased  by  fresh,  living  recruits  for  the  grave." 
One  night  about  ten  o'clock,  they  heard  the  tramp 
of  coming  feet  that  soon  stopped  before  the  prison 
door.  In  the  company  was  a  young  Baptist  minister 
whose  heart  almost  fainted  as  he  looked  on  the 
cold  walls  and  thought  of  the  suffering  within.  Tired 
and  half  sick  he  sat  down  and  put  his  face  in  his 
hands  and  wept.  Just  then  a  lone  voice  of  deep, 
sweet  pathos,  sang  from  an  upper  window, 

Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow. 

and  instantly  a  dozen  voices  were  heard  on  the  sec- 
ond line;  and  before  the  last  line  was  reached  the 
prison  was  all  alive  with  song,  and  lonesomeness  and 
despair  were  dispelled  for  the  night  by  this  splendid 
verse  of  praise. 

In  1898  Professor  Elisha  Gray,  the  noted  inven- 


THE  GREAT  DOXOLOGY.  43 

tor  and  electrician,  (died  January  twenty-second, 
1901),  contributed  a  series  of  articles  to  the  Chicago 
Times-Herald  in  which  he  had  something  to  say 
about  music  and  musicians.  In  one  of  the  chapters 
he  gives  the  following  illustration  of  the  stirring 
effect  of  the  singing  of  Old  Hundred: 

"I  remember  an  incident  in  my  own  experience 
that  ever  since  has  seemed  to  me  to  have  been  the 
most  thrilling  moment  of  my  life.  On  the  ninth  of 
July,  1881,  I  sailed  from  New  York  for  Glasgow  on 
the  steamer  Circassia.  All  who  are  old  enough  will 
remember  that  only  a  few  days  before  that  time  not 
only  our  country  but  the  whole  civilized  world  was 
shocked  by  the  shooting  of  President  Garfield  at 
the  hands  of  an  assassin.  At  the  time  the  steamer 
sailed  his  life  hung,  as  it  were,  in  a  balance,  no  one 
knowing  at  what  moment  the  scales  would  turn  or 
which  way.  One  beautifully  clear  morning,  after 
we  had  been  out  some  eight  or  nine  days,  we  found 
ourselves  sailing  in  smooth  water,  close  to  land  on 
the  north  shore  of  Ireland.  All  eyes  were  looking 
wistfully  toward  the  shore,  as  if  trying  to  solve  the 
problem,  through  some  sign  that  might  be  visible, 
that  would  relieve  the  tension  of  our  long  suspense, 
when,  lo!  a  boat  with  two  men  was  seen  coming  off 
from  the  signal  station,  and  steering  directly  for 
our  ship.  When  they  came  within  hailing  distance 
one  of  the  men  stood  up  and  shouted  the  words, 
'Garfield  all  right/ 

"Silence  reigned  for  a  moment,  while  such  a  wave 


44  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

of  profound  emotion  swept  and  surged  through  that 
throng  as  rarely  stirs  the  souls  of  men.  For  one 
supreme  moment  national  boundaries  were  obliter- 
ated and  all  were  brothers  with  a  common  feeling 
of  sympathy  centered  upon  the  stricken  President 
of  the  greatest  republic  on  earth.  One  moment  of 
silence  more  eloquent  than  the  most  impassioned 
speech,  and  then  the  multitude  found  its  voice,  and 
such  cheers  as  went  up  from  the  deck  of  that 
steamer!  Then  the  Doxology,  Traise  God  from 
whom  all  blessings  flow/  burst  spontaneously  from 
the  lips  of  the  throng;  and  such  music!  Hundreds 
of  times  had  I  heard  this  same  Doxology,  but  this  was 
the  first  time  I  had  felt  its  real  meaning.  It  was 
the  first  time  I  had  ever  really  heard  it  sung  under- 
standingly,  and  it  has  had  a  new  meaning  to  me 
ever  since.  In  all  probability  this  was  the  only 
occasion  of  a  life-time  when  I  shall,  except  in  mem- 
ory, hear  such  an  impressive  rendering  of  the  Old 
Doxology,  familiar,  in  a  way,  to  all  Christendom, 
but  how  few  have  really  heard  it!" 

It  has  been  said  that  no  words  have  been  in- 
vented that  will  convey  the  sensation  of  a  profound 
emotion  so  well  as  the  language  of  music.  The 
Charleston  (South  Carolina)  News  and  Courier  once 
published  a  happy  illustration  of  this  fact.  In  the 
early  part  of  March,  1893,  a  company  of  Chicago 
ladies  and  gentlemen  visited  Charleston,  and  in  their 
rounds  of  sight-seeing  they  paid  a  visit  to  the  his- 
toric St.  Michael's  Church,  in  which  generations  of 


THOMAS  KEN. 


THE  GHEAT  BOXOLOG?.  45 

good  people  have  worshiped.  Within  a  few  feet 
of  the  high  pulpit,  from  which  Sunday  after  Sun- 
day for  more  than  one  hundred  years,  "the  law  and 
the  gospel  have  been  proclaimed,  is  a  pew  in  which 
George  Washington  and  Lafayette  and  Eobert  E. 
Lee,  and  other  great  men  who  have  illumined  the 
pages  of  history,  have  in  their  time  and  according 
to  their  opportunity,  reverently  joined  in  the  services 
of  the  Church,  and  from  the  common  level  of  a 
common  humanity,  asked  God's  favor  and  his  bless- 
ing upon  this  country." 

One  afternoon  the  Chicago  company  took  seats 
in  this  self-same  pew,  and  under  the  inspiration  of 
the  scene  and  the  occasion,  sang  as  it  had  never  been 
sung  before,  the  Doxology  of  the  Church  universal, 

Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow. 

The  News  and  Courier  said  the  effect  was  electrical 
and  beyond  description.  "We  did  not  know  the 
singers,  we  only  heard  the  song.  It  was  like  a  burst 
of  the  sunshine  which  often-times,  in  this  Southern 
clime  of  ours,  comes  to  light  up  with  glory  inde- 
scribable, the  close  of  wintry  days.  It  was  more — 
the  Doxology  was  a  benediction  upon  the  work  of 
the  most  memorable  and  eventful  day  in  the  history 
of  Charleston  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century." 

One  of  the  most  impressive  scenes  ever  witnessed 
at  the  close  of  a  session  of  Congress  was  that  of 
March  fourth,  1899.  It  was  about  the  hour  of  mid- 
night, and  the  Fifty-fifth  Congress,  which  had  been 


46  HYMN 8  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

"one  of  extraordinary  duties  and  responsibilities" 
had  just  finished  its  business.  The  spectacle  attend- 
ing a  closing  session  is  seldom  dignified  but  in  this 
case  there  was  a  happy  exception  in  the  conduct  of 
the  members.  A  few  members  of  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives  began  to  sing,  My  Country,  'tis  of 
Thee;  and  in  a  flash  every  one  in  the  great  hall 
was  on  his  feet.  The  Star  Spangled  Banner  soon 
followed,  but  this  was  hardly  finished  when  the 
Southern  members  started  Dixie;  and  in  a  few 
moments  later  in  the  general  hand-shaking,  Auld 
Lang  Syne  became  a  fit  accompaniment.  A  floor 
correspondent  of  The  Independent  said  this  demon- 
stration lasted  about  half  an  hour,  "when  some- 
thing was  needed  as  a  fitting  termination  to  this 
hilarity,  and  to  soothe  and  give  dignity  and  calm 
to  these  geysers  of  sentiment.  It  was  found  in  Old 
Hundred.  When  its  notes  broke  on  the  air  the 
voices  above  and  below  joined  in  a  clear,  reverent, 
and  sincere  Doxology.  What  mattered  it  that  Cath- 
olics and  Protestants,  Methodists  and  Calvinists, 
Trinitarians  and  Unitarians,  were  all  in  the  choir? 
They  were  singing  with  their  hearts  as  well  as  their 
voices.  Is  there  any  other  national  legislative  body 
where  such  a  closing  hour  could  be  celebrated?" 

The  Doxology  is  truly  a  wonderful  verse.  It  has 
been  the  "death-song  of  martyrs  and  the  pean  of 
victorious  armies.  In  times  innumerable  it  has  been 
sung  when  planning  great  undertakings  and  reaping 
the  rewards   of  successful   enterprises."  It  was  the 


TEE  GREAT  DOXOLOGY.  47 

song  of  the  Old  and  the  New  World  when  the  metal 
nerve  was  laid  beneath  the  waters  of  the  sea  binding 
together  two  great  continents.  When  peace  was 
sealed  at  Appomattox  the  Doxology  rolled  "like  the 
voice  of  mighty  thunder"  from  State  to  State  and 
from  ocean  to  ocean.  Whenever  the  spirit  of  spon- 
taneous praise  takes  hold  of  large  public  assemblies, 
the  Doxology  is  usually  the  song  by  which  expres- 
sion of  gratitude  is  made. 

Probably  the  Doxology  was  never  sung  on  a  more 
impressive  and  historic  occasion  than  at  Peking,  on 
the  fourteenth  of  August,  1900.  The  civilized  world 
was  held  in  awful  suspense  during  the  fifty-six  days 
the  various  legations  and  the  missionaries  withstood 
the  millions  of  Chinese.  When  the  allied  forces 
entered  the  city  the  heart-felt  rejoicing  of  the  men, 
women  and  children,  who  had  faced  a  living  death 
for  nearly  two  months,  cannot  be  described.  Rockets 
blazed  in  the  air,  cannon  smashed  the  yellow  roofs 
of  the  Forbidden  City,  and  soldiers  and  civilians 
made  the  welkin  ring  with  cheers;  but  the  most 
thrilling  and  soul-inspiring  incident  connected  with 
the  celebration  of  their  deliverance,  was  the  assemb- 
ling of  the  missionaries  about  the  Bell  tower  and 
singing, 

Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow. 

The  tune  Old  Hundred  which  is  universally  used 
in  singing  the  Doxology,  is  supposed  to  be  the  work 
of  William  Franck,  a  German  composer,  born  in  1520, 


48  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

and  died  in  1570.  He  was  one  of  the  fifty  musi- 
cians who  composed  the  tunes  for  the  French  version 
of  the  Psalter,  printed  in  1545.  But  some  historians 
of  the  tune  are  of  the  ppinion  that  it  was  composed 
by  Louis  Bourgeois  for  the  German  Psalter  of  which 
he  was  editor  in  1551-52.  In  England  the  tune  was 
set  to  the  One  Hundredth  Psalm,  from  which  it 
became  known  as  The  Hundredth;  but  in  1696, 
when  Tate  and  Brady  published  their  New  Version, 
the  word  Old  was  used  to  show  that  the  tune  was  the 
one  in  use  in  the  previous  Psalter,  edited  by  Stern- 
hold  and  Hopkins. 

Old  Hundred  is  solemn  in  its  strains  and  mag- 
nificent in  its  harmony,  and  the  tie  that  binds  it  to 
the  Great  Doxology  the  onward  sweep  of  time  can- 
not dissever. 


VII. 

The  Founder  of  Our  Hymnology. 

URING  the  first  sixteen  hundred  years  of 
the  Christian  era  there  were  scarcely  any 
metrical  songs  in  which  the  people  could 
unite  in  singing.  The  few  such  hymns  which  may 
have  been  written  in  England  before  the  time  of 
Isaac  Watts,  were  not  in  common  use,  "partly 
because  of  the  apathy  of  the  clergy  and  the  indiffer- 
ence of  the  people;"  but  chiefly  because  "they  were 
wanting  in  animating  force  and  spiritual  power." 
From  15G1  to  1696,  the  only  singing  heard  in  the 
Church  was  from  the  old  version  of  the  Psalms 
by  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  and  even  the  singing 
of  the  metrical  Psalms  was  monopolized  by  the 
choir — a  condition  that  seemed  to  preclude  any 
demand  "to  create  a  supply  of  hymns." 

In  our  day  we  can  hardly  imagine  how  weari- 
some it  was  to  the  flesh  to  listen  to  the  monotonous 
psalm-singing  of  the  Puritan  fathers.  In  Alice 
Morse  Earle's  delightful  book,  The  Sabbath  in 
Puritan  New  England,  is  an  incident  that  serves  to 
show  the  condition  of  Church  hymnody  in  the 
early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  told  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  West,  who  preached  at  Dartmouth  in 
1726,  that  he  forgot  one  Sabbath  morning  to  bring 
his    sermon    to    meeting.     He    gave  out    a    Psalm, 


50  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

walked  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  his  home,  got  his  ser- 
mon, and  was  back  in  his  pulpit  before  the  Psalm 
was  finished. 

In  1675  a  young  mother,  carrying  an  infant,  was 
frequently  seen  walking  to  and  fro  in  front  of  an  old 
jail  at  Southampton,  England.  Many  times  a 
day  she  could  be  seen  kolding  it  up  at  arm's  length 
before  the  jail  window  that  a  prisoner  might  see  the 
face  of  the  child.  The  child  was  Isaac  Watts,  and 
the  prisoner  wras  its  father.  The  parents  were  emi- 
nently pious,  and  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  Mr. 
Watts  twice  suffered  imprisonment  on  account  of  his 
religious  convictions. 

In  precocity,  Isaac  Watts  was  one  of  the  wonders 
of  his  time.  The  story  of  his  life  says  that  he  began 
the  study  of  Latin  at  the  age  of  four,  Greek  at  nine, 
French  at  ten,  and  Hebrew  at  thirteen.  He  was  so 
assiduous  in  his  studies  that  his  constitution  was 
permanently  injured.  When  sixteen  years  old  he 
was  so  bright  in  scholarship  and  lovable  in  disposi- 
tion that  Dr.  Speed,  and  others  of  Southampton, 
offered  to  give  him  a  free  education  in  a  university, 
which,  if  accepted,  meant  an  eventual  ordination  in 
the  Established  Church.  But  the  little  Dissenter, 
with  a  courage  and  purpose  which  indicated  the 
soul-standard  of  the  coming  man,  declared  that  he 
would  not  forsake  the  denomination  to  which  his 
parents  belonged,  for  the  highest  honors  the  univer- 
sity could  confer  upon  him;  and  is  it  not  rational 
to  presume  that  this  decision  made  it  possible  for 


THJ    FOUNDER  OF   OUR  HYMNOLOGY.  51 

Isaac  Watts  to  become  the  founder  of  our  Christian 
hymnology? 

Returning  from  Church  one  Sunday  morning 
when  in  his  eighteenth  year,  he  complained  to  his 
father  that  the  hymns  were  intolerably  dull.  His 
ear  for  melody  had  suffered  after  the  fashion  of  a 
person  who  has  his  sensitive  nerves  shocked  by  the 
sound  of  a  file  sharpening  a  saw.  He  had  the  good 
sense  to  tell  his  father  that  he  thought  he  could  write 
better  hymns  himself.  Deacon  Watts  was  wise,  as 
all  deacons  ought  to  be.  and  having  some  poetical 
taste  himself,  and  placing  large  confidence  in  the 
boy's  judgment,  he  urged  him  to  try  his  hand;  and 
on  the  following  Sunday  morning  the  congregation 
at  the  Independent  Church  at  Southampton,  was 
invited  to  join  in  singing  an  original  hymn  by  Isaac 
Watts,  Behold  the  Glories  of  the  Lamb.  It  is  worth 
while  to  say  that  this  hymn,  written  in  such  peculiar 
circumstances,  has  had  an  extensive  use  in  Great 
Britain  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  is  still 
found  in  some  American  hymnals. 

From  the  date  of  this  incident  began  the  signal 
triumphs  of  Watts  in  hymn-writing.  With  one 
exception,  that  of  Charles  Wesley,  the  world  has 
seen  nothing  that  compares  with  his  contributions 
to  the  songs  of  the  Church.  He  wrote  nearly  seven 
hundred  hymns.  He  wrote  some  of  his  noblest 
hymns  at  a  time  when  there  existed  a  deep  prejudice 
against  the  use  of  songs  in  Church  worship.  Dr. 
W.  Garrett  Horder  says  in  The  Hymn  Lover,  that 


52  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

so  strong  was  this  prejudice,  and  so  high  did  feeling 
run  against  new  hymns,  that  many  a  Church  in 
England  was  rent  asunder  by  the  proposal  to  intro- 
duce them  in  Sunday  services;  and  the  original 
Church  of  which  the  late  Charles  H.  Spurgeon  was 
pastor,  was  almost  hopelessly  divided  because  a  ma- 
jority of  the  members  voted  to  use  Christian  songs 
in  the  sanctuary. 

The  wall  of  prejudice  that  Watts  faced  in  offer- 
ing his  hymns  to  the  Churches  was  so  invincible  that 
it  required  many  years  to  overcome  it.  He  published 
his  Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs  in  1707,  which  was 
the  first  effort  made  by  any  hymn-writer  to  super- 
sede the  Psalter.  But  his  finest  hymns  so  full 
of  exalted  praise,  were  called  "Watts's  whims/' 
and  it  was  some  twenty  or  thirty  years  before  his 
best  hymns  found  their  way  into  common  use.  But 
when  adopted  they  became  an  extraordinary  power, 
and  for  a  whole  century  Watts  ruled  the  Independ- 
ent Churches  as  no  other  hymn-writer  has  since  his 
day.  His  hymns  still  have  a  strong  hold  upon  the 
universal  religious  mind,  and  in  Calvinistic 
Churches  between  one  hundred  and  one  hundred 
and  fifty  of  his  hymns  are  in  use.  Many  of  them 
have  been  patched  and  rent  by  profane  hymn- 
menders,  but  somebody  has  said  that  there  is  enough 
of  Watts  left  in  them  to  remind  one  of  the  saying 
of  Horace:  "You  may  know  the  remains  of  a  poet 
even  when  he  is  torn  to  pieces." 

Dr.  Watts  passed  two-thirds  of  his  life  of  seven- 


ISAAC  WATTS. 


THE  i  0 UNDER  OF  OUR  HYMNOLOGY.  53 

ty-four  years  in  ill-health.  He  was  a  very  small 
man,  and  like  St.  Paul,  "in  bodily  presence  was 
weak."  In  early  manhood  he  proposed  marriage 
with  Miss  Elizabeth  Singer,  afterwards  the  distin- 
guished Mrs.  Eowe;  but  she  declined  the  proposal 
with  the  remark  that  while  she  "loved  the  jewel, 
she  could  not  admire  the  casket  that  contained  it." 
This  sore  reflection  on  his  personal  appearance 
greatly  mortified  him,  and  in  the  gloom  of  disap- 
pointment he  wrote  the  hymn  beginning  with  these 
weird  lines: 

How  vain  are  all   things   here  below! 

How  false,  and  yet  how  fair! 
Each  pleasure  hath  its  poison  too, 

And  every  sweet  a  snare. 

Though  earth  seemed  for  the  time  to  withhold  its 
smiles,  at  length  heaven  brightened,  and  in  retire- 
ment— in  the  years  untouched  by  sorrow  and 
unvexed  by  storm — Watts  wrote  many  of  his  finest 
songs  of  praise. 

Watts  was  one  of  the  great  preachers  of  his  time, 
but  after  reaching  his  thirty-eighth  year  it  was  only 
occasionally  that  he  was  heard  in  the  pulpit.  In 
1702  he  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  Independent 
congregation  in  Mark  Lane,  London.  Ten  years 
later  he  was  attacked  by  a  violent  fever  from  which 
he  never  fully  recovered.  It  was  in  1712  while  at 
Mark  Lane  that  his  noble  Christian  spirit,  his  charm 
as  a  conversationalist,  and  his  genuine  qualities  of 
heart  and  mind,  won  the  love  of  Sir  Thomas  Abney, 


54  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

formerly  Lord  Mayor  of  London  and  Member  of 
Parliament.  Sir  Thomas  invited  the  poet-preacher 
to  spend  one  week  with  him  at  his  beautiful  country 
seat  at  Theobald,  in  Hertfordshire.  The  invitation 
was  accepted,  but  by  the  command  of  the  host,  and 
after  his  death  in  1722,  at  the  request  of  the  widow, 
the  visit  covered  the  greater  portion  of  Watts's 
remaining  life — thirty-six  years.  His  death  occurred 
in  November,  1748.  He  was  buried  at  Bunhill 
Fields,  a  Puritan  cemetery  near  Finsbury  Square, 
London.  His  remains  lie  near  those  of  John  Bun- 
yan  and  Daniel  Defoe. 

A  beautiful  and  tender  tribute  to  Dr.  Watts  for 
his  nobility  of  character  and  the  rich  legacy  he 
bequeathed  to  the  universal  Church,  was  the  erec- 
tion of  a  handsome  monument  at  Southampton  in 
1861,  for  which  Christians  of  all  denominations 
made  generous  contributions.  But  perhaps  the  most 
enduring  of  all  the  Watts  memorials  is  that  placed 
among  the  immortal  British  poets  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  which,  it  is  said,  "commands  a  larger  respect 
than  the  busts  of  kings/' 

It  is  not  a  matter  to  create  surprise  that  Watts 
wrote  too  much  to  insure  excellence  in  all  his  com- 
positions. "He  rose  high  in  some  and  sank  low  in 
many,"  but  the  good  among  his  productions  are 
perpetual  treasures.  On  his  lyre  with  its  many 
chords  he  strikes  his  highest  note  in  his  crucifixion 
hymn  which  is  universally  conceded  to  be  the  finest 
on  that  theme  in  our  own  or  any  other  language: 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  OUR  HYMNOLOOT.  55 

When  I  survey  the  won<Trous  cross 

On  which  the  Prince  of  glory  died, 
My  richest  gain  I  count  but  loss, 

And  pour  contempt  on  all  my  pride. 

Forbid  it,  Lord,  that  I  should  boast, 
Save  in  the  death  of  Christ,  my  God; 

All  the  vain  things  that  charm  me  most, 
1  sacrifice  them  to  His  blood. 

See,  from  His  head,  His  hands,  His  feet, 
Sorrow  and  love  flow  mingled  down: 

Did  e'er  such  love  and  sorrow  meet, 
Or  thorns  compose  so  rich  a  crown? 

Were  the  whole  realm  of  nature  mine, 

That  were  a  present  far  too  small; 
Love  so  amazing,  so  divine, 

Demands  my  soul,  my  life,  my  all. 

Some  higfh  authorities  in  hymnology  call  this 
one  of  the  six  best  hymns  in  the  English  language, 
the  other  five  being  Eock  of  Ages;  Jesus,  Lover  of 
my  Soul;  Coronation;  Abide  with  me;  and  Nearer, 
my  God,  to  Thee.  Whatever  the  reader  may  think 
of  this  classification  of  the  hymn,  it  is  unquestion- 
ably Watts's  masterpiece,  and  when  sung  to  the  solid 
and  majestic  tune,  Hamburg,  whose  melody  has 
lasted  for  fourteen  centuries,  it  gives  a  blending  of 
words  and  music  which  is  soul-quickening  and  sub- 
limely impressive. 

The  Rev.  Duncan  Campbell  of  Edinburgh,  6ays: 
"For  tender,  solemn  beauty,  for  a  reverent  setting 
forth  of  what  the  inner  vision  discerns  as  it  looks 
upon  the  Crucified,  I  know  of  no  verse  in  our  hym- 
nology to  equal  the  stanza  beginning 


56  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

See,  from  His  head,  His  hands,  His  feet, 
Sorrow  and  love  flow  mingled  down! 

There  may  'have  been  singers  with  a  finer  sense  of 
melody;  Watts's  metrical  and  musical  range  was  lim- 
ited— he  had  only  six  meters — but  not  the  most 
tuneful  of  our  sacred  poets  has  given  us  lines  more 
exquisite  than  these." 

In  George  Eliot' s  Adam  Bede,  is  the  noted  char- 
acter of  Dinah  Morris,  "not  a  fictitious  character,  but 
a  real  personage  bearing  the  author's  own  family 
name."  She  was  a  preacher  and  lived  near 
Matlock,  England,  and  passed  away  at  a  great  age. 
In  her  dying  moments  she  was  full  of  pain,  and 
one  night  a  friend  supported  her  in  a  sitting  posture, 
when  she  suddenly  began  to  repeat  in  a  spirit  of 
sweet  composure  that  stanza  of  marvelous  pathos: 

See,  from  His  head,   His  hands,  His  feet, 
Sorrow  and  love  flow  mingled  down: 

Did  e'er  such  love  and  sorrow  meet, 
Or  thorns  compose  so  rich  a  crown? 

In  1830,  James  Delaney,  then  twenty-six  years 
old,  was  a  British  artilleryman  doing  service  in 
India.  The  first  Protestant  prayer  he  ever  heard 
was  at  the  execution  of  a  soldier  for  the  crime  of 
murder.  Delaney^s  command  was  stationed  at  Maul- 
main,  and  while  there  he  heard  the  remarkable 
preaching  of  Eugenio  Kincaid.  At  one  of  the  serv- 
ices held  in  March,  1831,  he  heard  for  the  first  time, 
When  I  survey  the  Wondrous  Cross.  The  hymn 
stirred  his  soul  as  nothing  ever  had  before.     In  his 


TEE  FOUNDER  OF  OUR  HTMNOLOOY.  57 

hard  life  he  seemed  to  be  insensible  to  religious 
influences;  but  the  song  so  deeply  moved  him 
that  the  course  of  his  life  was  changed.  His 
conversion  was  complete,  and  in  a  few  weeks 
he  was  baptized  in  the  Salwin  river.  Four 
years  after,  Delaney  emigrated  to  the  United  States, 
and  in  1844  settled  in  Wisconsin.  He  became  a 
Baptist  missionary,  and  afterwards  a  regular  pastor, 
and  the  fruits  of  his  labors  in  these  fields  of  activity 
were  no  less  remarkable  than  his  conversion.  He 
passed  away  at  Whitewater,  Wisconsin,  in  1896,  at 
the  age  of  ninety-three. 

This  was  the  favorite  hymn  of  the  late  Professor 
Edwards  Amasa  Park,  the  famous  Andover  teacher 
and  theologian.  His  preference  for  it  was  so 
marked  that  it  was  frequently  noted  and  alluded  to; 
and  the  hymn  was  sung  at  his  burial  on  the  seventh 
of  June,  1900. 

Another  hymn  by  Watts  which  Dr.  Horder  says 
"will  be  sung  as  long  as  the  Church  continues  her 
worship-song/'  is  that  sublime  paraphrase  of  the 
Ninetieth  Psalm, 

Our  God,  our  help  in  ages  past, 

Our  hope  for  years  to  come; 
Our   shelter   from  the   stormy   blast, 

And  our  eternal  home! 

Canon  Liddon  says  it  is  one  of  the  three  best  hymns 
in  our  language.  The  various  tunes  to  which  it  is 
usually    sung    do    not    seem  to    comport    with    the 


68  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

grandeur  of  the  hymn,  and  probably  this  explains 
why  its  use  in  public  worship  is  much  restricted. 
Perhaps  the  finest  ascription  of  praise  Watts 
condensed  into  eight  lines  is  the  charming  para- 
phrase of  the  One  Hundred  and  Seventeenth  Psalm, 

Erom  all  that  dwell  below  the  skies, 
Let  the  Creator's  praise  arise; 
Let  the  Redeemer's  name  be  sung 
Through  every  land,  by  every  tongue. 

Eternal  are  Thy  mercies,  Lord, 
Eternal  truth  attends  Thy  word; 
Thy  praise  shall  sound  from  shore  to  shore 
Till  suns  shall  rise  and  set  no  more. 

This  is  a  brief  but  beautiful  rendering  of  the  short- 
est chapter  in  the  Bible.  "There  is  a  charm  in 
poetry  and  music  which  has  never  been  exhausted, 
and  by  many  not  even  fully  realized." 

The  greatest  gathering  of  singers  and  musicians 
the  world  ever  saw  was  at  the  Peace  Jubilee  in  Bos- 
ton in  1872.  Twelve  thousand  trained  voices  and 
three  thousand  instruments  rendered  the  master- 
pieces of  the  ages.  When  the  marvelous  thrill  of 
excitement  occasioned  by  the  arrival  of  President 
Grant  on  the  first  day  had  passed  away,  Patrick  S. 
Gilmore,  the  organizer  and  leader  of  the  chorus, 
received  a  tremendous  ovation.  Finally  he  raised 
the  enchanter's  wand  in  the  air,  and  when  it 
descended,  "a  flood  of  song  burst  forth  from  twice 
ten  thousand  voices  in  the  solemn  strains  of  Old 
Hundred,"  united  to  the  inspiring  words, 


TEE  FOUNDER  OF  OUR  HYMNOLOOY.  59 

From  all   that  dwell   below  the  skies 
Let  the  Creator's  praise  arise. 

The  effect  was  complete  and  overwhelming.  It  was 
a  fitting  prelude  to  the  most  stupendous  undertak- 
ing ever  known  in  the  history  of  music. 

No  hymn  ascribed  to  Watts  has  perhaps  received 
greater  recognition  than  that  accorded  Before 
Jehovah's  awful  Throne.  When  he  paraphrased  the 
One  Hundredth  Psalm,  his  first  four  lines  did  not 
match  the  dignity  of  the  theme.  When  John  Wes- 
ley was  in  America  in  1736  he  revised  a  portion  of 
the  hymn  by  dropping  the  first  stanza;  and  for 
Watts's  first  two  lines  of  the  second  stanza, 

Nations,  attend  before  His  throne, 
With  solemn  fear,  with  sacred  joy, 

he  substituted  the  splendid  couplet  that  all  Chris- 
tendom has  adopted, 

Before  Jehovah's  awful  throne, 
Ye  nations  bow  with  sacred  joy. 

It  is  a  fact  of  no  small  interest  that  this  hymn 
which,  by  John  Wesley's  genius,  was  given  excep- 
tional power  and  sublimity,  wras  first  published  in 
his  Psalms  and  Hymns  at  Charlestown,  Massachu- 
setts, in  1736-37,  and  was  repeated  in  England  four 
years  after. 

A  writer  in  one  of  the  New  York  papers  once 
attempted  a  description  of  a  visit  to  Spurgeon's 
Tabernacle  in  London,  where  the  singing  surpassed 
anything    he    had     ever    heard    in     Church    wor- 


60  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

ship.  He  declared  it  was  worth  a  trip  across  the 
Atlantic  to  hear  Spurgeon's  audience  sing  Before 
Jehovah's  awful  Throne,  to  Old  Hundred. 
The  massive  harmony  of  the  six  thousand  voices 
produced  an  effect  too  sublime  for  him  to 
describe.  Not  a  voice  seemed  to  be  mute,  save  occa- 
sionally when  some  one's  nerves  were  overpowered 
by  the  mighty  rolling  chorus  that  rose  on  every 
side. 

Frequent  mention  has  been  made  of  another 
interesting  incident  with  which  this  hymn  is  asso- 
ciated. It  was  early  in  1854,  in  the  harbor  of  Japan, 
where  Commodore  Matthew  Calbraith  Perry — a 
brother  of  Commodore  Perry  of  Lake  Erie  fame — 
"was  lying  with  his  fleet  at  anchor,  while  he  was, 
in  the  name  of  the  United  States,  conducting  that 
treaty  by  which  the  ports  of  this  heretofore  hermit 
nation  were  to  be  thrown  open  to  the  commerce 
of  the  world.  Thousands  of  natives  were  gathered 
upon  the  shore,  when  the  chaplain  of  the  flagship 
gave  direction  for  the  singing  of  this  hymn.  The 
marine  band  struck  up  the  notes  of  Old  Hundred, 
and  Before  Jehovah's  awful  Throne  swelled  in  a 
mighty  chorus  along  the  shore  as  a  command  to  the 
nation  to  yield  to  the  force  of  Christian  civilization." 

The  first  great  missionary  hymn  was  written  by 
Watts  in  1719,  and  begins  with  the  lines, 

Jesus  shall  reign  where'er  the  sun 
Doth  his  successive  journeys  run. 

It  is  a  famous  version  of  the  Seventy-second  Psalm; 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  OUR  HYMNOLOGY.  61 

and  with  the  surprising  "growth  and  development 
of  Foreign  Missions"  during  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  hymn  is  next  to  Heber^s  From  Greenland's  icy 
Mountains,  in  popularity.  Mr.  George  John  Ste- 
venson of  London,  gives  an  account  of  the  striking 
and  historical  use  of  this  hymn: 

"The  most  interesting  occasion  on  which  this 
hymn  was  used  was  that  on  which  King  George,  the 
sable,  of  the  South  Sea  Islands,  but  of  blessed  mem- 
ory, gave  a  new  constitution  to  his  people,  exchang- 
ing a  heathen  for  a  Christian  form  of  government. 
Under  the  spreading  branches  of  the  banyan  trees, 
some  five  thousand  natives  from  Tonga,  Fiji,  and 
Samoa,  on  Whitsunday,  1862,  assembled  for  divine 
worship.  Foremost  among  them  all  sat  King  George 
himself.  Around  him  were  seated  old  chiefs  and 
warriors  who  had  shared  with  him  the  dangers  and 
fortunes  of  many  a  battle.  But  old  and  young  alike 
rejoiced  together  in  the  joys  of  that  day.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  describe  the  deep  feeling  manifested 
when  the  solemn  service  began  by  the  entire  audi- 
ence singing  Dr.  Watts's  hymn, 

Jesus  shall   reign  where'er  the   sun 
Does  his  successive  journeys  run; 
His  kingdom  spread  from  shore  to  shore, 
TiD  moons  shall  wax  and  wane  no  more. 

They  had  been  rescued  from  the  darkness  of  heath- 
enism and  cannibalism,  and  that  day  had  met  for 
the  first  time  under  a  Christian  king,  and  with 
Christ  reigning  in  the  hearts  of  most  of  those  pres- 


62  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

ent.     That  was  indeed  Christ' s  kingdom  set  up  in 
the  earth." 

Dr.  "Watts  was  the  pioneer  of  popular  English 
hymnology.  "He  broke  new  ground."  He  did  ex- 
ceedingly much  to  improve  and  inspire  worship- 
song.  He  did  not  write  anything  quite  so  dear 
to  the  human  heart  as  Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul,  or 
Eock  of  Ages,  but  he  soared  to  the  highest  region 
of  spiritual  devotion  in  many  of  his  perfect  hymns 
of  praise,  for  which  the  Churches  will  hold  him 
"in  perpetual  remembrance." 


VIII. 

O  Happy  Day  That  Fixed  riy  Choice. 

NE  of  the  great  names  in  English  hymnody 
is  Philip  Doddridge.  He  was  the  twen- 
tieth child  of  a  London  oil  merchant,  and 
was  born  in  1702.  So  few  were  the  signs  of  life 
at  his  birth  that  at  first  he  was  given  up  for  dead, 
and  his  constitution  was  ever  afterwards  extremely 
delicate.  His  parents  died  when  he  was  quite  young, 
but  his  religious  training  was  begun  by  his  mother 
in  his  early  childhood  when  she  taught  him  Scrip- 
tural history  by  means  of  the  figured  Dutch  tiles  of 
the  chimney  of  her  apartment. 

When  Doddridge  was  about  fifteen  years  old  he 
entered  a  private  school  at  St.  Albans,  where  his 
studiousness  and  piety  attracted  the  notice  of  Dr. 
Samuel  Clarke,  a  philanthropic  Presbyterian  min- 
ister who  kindly  undertook  the  charge  and  expense 
of  the  orphan's  education.  After  quitting  St. 
Albans,  the  Duchess  of  Bedford  offered  to  support 
him  at  the  University  and  procure  for  him  prefer- 
ment in  the  Church  of  England,  but  Doddridge 
remembered  that  his  parents  were  Dissenters,  and 
with  great  conscientiousness  he  declined  the  gener- 
ous offer.  In  the  effort  to  qualify  himself  for  the 
office  of  a  Dissenting  minister,  he  met  with  much 
discouragement.     But  eventually  he  became  a  stu- 


64  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

dent  at  the  Dissenting  Academy  of  John  Jennings, 
and  when  twenty  years  old  he  began  to  preach  at 
Kibwortk,  Leicestershire.  In  1729  he  settled  at 
Northampton  as  minister,  and  as  president  of  a  theo- 
logical Academy;  and  here  he  continued  to  preach 
and  train  young  students  for  the  ministry  till  a 
short  time  before  his  death.  Of  the  two  hundred 
students  who  were  graduated  from  his  school,  one 
hundred  and  forty  entered  the  ministry. 

Dr.  Doddridge's  life  hung  upon  a  slender  thread. 
In  the  effort  to  preach  the  funeral  sermon  of  his 
benefactor,  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  he  contracted  a  severe 
cold  which  greatly  alarmed  his  friends.  This  was 
in  December,  1750.  They  suggested  that  a  voyage 
to  Lisbon  would  be  helpful  to  him,  and  when  it 
became  known  that  his  scanty  means  barred  such 
a  journey,  a  Good  Samaritan  in  the  person  of  a  cler- 
gyman of  the  Church  of  England  set  on  foot  a  sub- 
scription for  Doddridge's  relief  which  soon  reached 
$1,500.  The  doctor  sailed  for  Lisbon  in  September, 
1751 — cheerful,  but  hardly  hopeful;  and  two  weeks 
after  reaching  the  beautiful  city  by  the  Tagus,  his 
"sun  went  down  while  it  was  yet  day/' 

Dr.  Doddridge's  fame  as  a  divine,  combined 
with  his  extensive  accomplishments,  the  striking 
beauty  of  his  character,  and  "his  wide  sympathy 
and  gentle,  unaffected  goodness,"  won  for  him  the 
high  esteem  of  Christian  leaders  and  thinkers  of 
England  regardless  of  Church  or  creed.  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson  says,  "Live  while  you  live,"  by  Doddridge, 


O  HAPPY  DAY  THAT  FIXED  MY  CHOICE.  65 

is  one  of  the  finest  epigrams  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. 

But  it  is  by  his  hymns  that  Doddridge  is  now 
best  known.  They  have  carried  his  name  all  over 
the  English-speaking  world.  He  wrote  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four,  and  nearly  all  of  them  were 
composed  in  connection  with  his  sermons,  and  dur- 
ing the  service  were  "lined  out"  from  manuscript 
for  the  congregation  to  sing.  None  of  his  hymns 
were  published  during  his  lifetime.  It  has  been 
said  that  as  a  rule  he  took  his  friend  Watts  as  his 
model  in  hymn-writing,  and  that  "if  he  never  rises 
so  high  as  Watts,  he  never  sinks  so  low." 

Some  hymnologists  are  inclined  to  name,  Hark! 
the  Glad  Sound,  the  Savior  Comes,  as  Doddridge's 
masterpiece,  although  its  use  is  comparatively  lim- 
ited. Awake,  my  Soul,  Stretch  Every  Nerve,  is  a 
great  favorite  and  is  largely  adopted  by  the  English 
and  American  Churches.  0  God  of  Bethel,  by 
Whose  Hand,  is  a  hymn  of  special  merit.  It  found 
a  place  among  the  Scotch  Paraphrases,  and  the 
famous  missionary  and  traveler,  David  Livingstone, 
became  familiar  with  it  when  a  boy.  In  his  wander- 
ings in  African  deserts,  he  carried  a  copy  of  the 
Paraphrases,  and  amid  the  solitude  that  surrounded 
him,  would  read  aloud: 

O  God  of  Bethel,  by  whose  hand 

Thy  people  still  are  fed; 
Who   through   this  weary  pilgrimage 

Hast  all  our  fathers  led. 


66  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

The  hymn    was  sung    at  Livingstone's    burial    in 
Westminster  Abbey,  in  April,  1874. 

But  of  the  hymns  written  by  Doddridge,  the  one 
that  rises  above  all  others  in  making  history,  is  that 
which  expresses  joy  in  personal  dedication  to  God — 

0  happy  day  that  fixed  my  choice 

On  Thee,  my  Savior  and  my  God! 
Well  may  this  glowing  heart  rejoice, 

And  tell  its  raptures  all  abroad. 

0  happy  bond,  that  seals  my  vows 

To  Him  who  merits  all  my  love! 
Let  cheerful  anthems  fill  His  house, 

While  to  that  sacred  shrine  I  move. 

'Tis  done,  the  great  transaction's  done; 

I  am  my  Lord's,  and  He  is  mine; 
He  drew  me,  and  I  followed  on, 

Charmed  to  confess  the  voice  divine. 

Now  rest,  my  long-divided  heart; 

Fixed  on  this  blissful  center,  rest; 
Nor  ever  from  thy  Lord  depart, 

With  Him  of  every  good  possessed. 

High  Heaven,  that  heard  the  solemn  vow, 
That  vow  renewed  shall  daily  hear, 

Till  in  life's  latest  hour  I  bow, 
And  bless  in  death  a  bond  so  dear. 

In  point  of  poetic  excellence  this  hymn  may  not 
stand  comparison  with  Hark!  the  Glad  Sound,  but 
in  many  great  revivals  in  America  and  Great  Brit- 
ain, it  has  been  a  wonderful  power.  Its  "lyric  force 
and  fervor"  and  the  splendor  of  its  theme,  will 
always  make  it  a  favorite  in  the  Churches. 


0  HAPPY  DAY  THAT  FIXED  MY  CHOICE.  67 

In  the  Established  Church  of  England  the  hymn 
is  used  for  confirmations;  and  its  appropriateness 
for  such  occasions  was  so  highly  appreciated  by 
Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert  that  it  was 
selected  by  them  to  be  sung  at  the  confirmation  of 
one  of  the  royal  children. 

In  January,  1898,  a  remarkable  scene  was  wit- 
nessed at  the  old  Centenary  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  St.  Louis.  The  occasion  was  the  mid- 
week prayer  meeting,  and  when  the  venerable  pas- 
tor, Dr.  Mathews,  was  about  to  dismiss  the  several 
hundred  who  had  braved  the  rain  and  melting  ice 
to  attend  the  service,  he  invited  any  one  who  desired 
the  prayers  of  the  Church  to  go  forward  while  the 
last  hymn  was  being  sung.  A  well-dressed,  earnest- 
looking  lady  approached  the  altar  and  quietly  knelt 
at  a  chair.  The  incident  immediately  became  one 
of  intense  interest,  and  hardly  any  one  seemed  in- 
clined to  leave.  Several  prayers  were  offered  in  her 
behalf,  and  her  tears  and  sobs  indicated  an  extra- 
ordinary depth  of  earnestness  and  conviction. 

It  was  about  ten  o'clock  when  the  president  of 
a  metropolitan  bank,  an  extensive  manufacturer, 
and  the  president  of  a  wholesale  dry-goods  company, 
were  all  on  their  knees  praying  for  the  penitent. 
Then  the  hymn, 

0  happy  day  that  fixed  my  choice 
On  Thee,  my  Savior  and  my  God, 

was  started    without    book    or    organ.     The    entire 


68  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

audience  "chimed  in  with  a  soft,  sweet  unity  in  time 
and  tone  and  heart."    When  the  third  stanza, 

'Tis  done,  the  great  transaction's  done, 
I  am  my  Lord's  and  He  is  mine, 

was  reached,  the  penitent  woman  still  on  her  knee3, 
raised  her  hands  in  prayer,  "while  her  face  was  as 
radiant  as  if  an  electric  search-light  had  been  turned 
on  from  the  throne  of  God." 

"The  scene,"  says  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advo- 
cate, "was  worth  more  than  all  the  books  ever  writ- 
ten on  the  evidences  of  Christianity."  To  this 
woman  of  modesty  and  culture,  the  revelation  of 
God's  love  "was  as  instantaneous  as  the  electric 
flash  on  the  brow  of  the  storm  king." 

One  of  the  most  notable  scenes  that  occurred 
during  the  evangelistic  tour  of  Messrs.  Moody  and 
Sankey  in  Ireland,  was  at  their  last  meeting  at  Bel- 
fast, on  the  seventeenth  of  October,  1874.  When 
three  thousand  people  stood  to  sing  the  last  hymn, 

O  happy  day  that  fixed  my  choice 
On  Thee,  my  Savior  and  my  God, 

the  chords  of  the  hearts  of  the  people  were  swept 
with  overpowering  effect.  One  writer  says  it  was 
like  the  sound  of  many  waters  to  hear  the  multitude 
sing  this  hymn;  and  that  the  depth  of  emotion 
which  the  old  and  familiar  lines  produced,  was 
impossible  to  describe. 


(juari 


^L^•:Y. 


IX. 

Jesus,  Lover  of  fly  Soul. 

SAAC  Watts  was  the  real  founder  of  Eng- 
lish hymnody,  but  the  flood  of  sacred  song 
that  mightily  stirred  the  hearts  of  men  was 
not  felt  in  a  marked  degree  in  England  till  the 
beginning  of  the  Wesleyan  revivals.  The  hymns  of 
Charles  Wesley,  which  the  people  could  both  sing 
and  feel,  powerfully  aided  in  making  the  gospel  in 
that  movement  one  of  the  most  revolutionary 
engines  the  world  ever  saw.  Green,  the  historian 
of  the  English  people,  says  the  Wesleyan  revivals 
changed  the  whole  temper  of  English  society;  but 
he  fails  to  note  that  no  man  made  a  larger  con- 
tribution to  the  success  of  that  great  awakening 
than  the  gentle  spirit,  sometimes  called  "the  sweet 
singer  of  Methodism." 

Charles  Wesley  was  the  eighteenth  child  of 
Samuel  and  Susanna  Wesley,  and  was  born  at  Ep- 
worth,  Lincolnshire,  in  December,  1708.  At  the 
age  of  eight  years  he  was  sent  to  Westminster 
School,  and  when  he  reached  fifteen  there  occurred 
the  most  consequential  event  of  his  life.  A  member 
of  the  British  Parliament,  named  Garret  Wesley,  but 
in  no  wise  related  to  the  Epworth  Wesleys,  lived  at 
Dangan,  Ireland;  and  having  no  children  of  his 
own,  he  desired  to  adopt  a  child  bearing  the  name 


70  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

of  Wesley  and  make  him  heir  of  his  estate.  He 
had  met  Charles  at  Westminster,  and  falling  in  love 
with  the  bright  and  handsome  boy,  he  wrote  Mr. 
Wesley  at  the  Kectory,  inquiring  if  he  had  a  son 
named  Charles,  saying  that  he  wished  to  adopt  a 
youth  of  that  name.  The  answer  from  Epworth  left 
the  matter  entirely  at  the  disposal  of  the  boy,  and 
Garret  Wesley,  thinking  that  Charles  could  be  easily 
taken  captive  by  the  promise  of  wealth,  visited  him 
at  Oxford,  and  offered  to  make  him  his  heir  if  he 
would  live  with  him  in  Ireland.  Charles  wrote  his 
father  for  assistance  in  deciding  the  matter,  but  Mr. 
Wesley  was  firm  in  his  purpose  to  let  his  son  choose 
his  own  career. 

Probably  never  before  in  all  human  history  was 
so  young  a  boy  obliged  to  decide  so  grave  a  question. 
On  the  one  hand  there  seemed  a  life  of  labor  and 
poverty  in  England,  and  on  the  other,  ease  and  the 
power  of  wealth  in  Ireland.  But  Charles  Wesley  of 
fifteen  won  a  victory  for  the  Christian  Church  more 
widespread  in  its  influence  than  any  political  or 
personal  advantage  gained  on  any  battle-field  by  any 
warrior  or  monarch  in  all  the  centuries  from  Mara- 
thon to  Waterloo.  He  declined  the  heirship.  Rich- 
ard Colley,  a  cousin  of  Garret  Wesley,  was  adopted, 
and  his  son  became  an  earl  and  the  father  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  who  changed  the  name  to 
the  older  form  of  Wellesley. 

If  Charles  Wesley  had  accepted  the  dazzling 
fortune — the  most  powerful  temptation  that  ever 


JESUS,   LOVER   OF  MY  SOUL.  71 

lay  in  the  pathway  of  young  ambition — "according 
to  all  human  calculation  the  world  would  never  have 
sung  his  hymns  which  have  touched  the  heart  of 
Christendom;  an  empire  would  not  have  been 
wrecked  at  Waterloo;  and  the  soldier  who  conquered 
Napoleon,  thus  overthrowing  one  of  the  most  am- 
bitious despots  of  modern  warfare,  might  never 
have  been  born.  It  is  a  striking  thought,  that  events 
so  momentous,  involving  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
interests  of  millions  should  have  been  contingent 
upon  the  volition  of  an  impetuous  boy." 

Charles  was  graduated  from  Oxford,  and  was 
ordained  priest  in  1735,  and  in  that  year  accom- 
panied Governor  Oglesthorpe  to  Georgia  as  his  pri- 
vate secretary,  where  he  and  John  were  to  engage 
in  missionary  work  among  the  Indians,  and  particu- 
larly in  the  settlement  for  criminals  who,  having 
served  their  time,  found  it  difficult  to  make  a  new 
start  in  life.  The  work,  however,  was  not  success- 
ful, and  the  prospects  being  discouraging,  Charles 
returned  to  England  in  the  following  year. 

When  Charles  Wesley  reached  home  he  was 
heart-sick  and  disappointed.  He  had  found  no  one 
who  could  tell  him  how  the  hunger  of  the  soul  could 
be  satisfied.  It  soon  fell  to  the  lot  of  Peter  Bohler, 
a  Moravian  minister,  and  Thomas  Bray,  an  illiter- 
ate mechanic,  who  knew  "nothing  but  Christ/5  to 
become  the  humble  instruments  by  which  the  Ox- 
ford scholar  should  receive  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Spirit;  and  on  May  twenty-first,  1739 — the  recurring 


72  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

date  of  his  conversion — he  celebrated  his  triumph 
over  spiritual  gloom  by  writing  this  song  of  rejoic- 
ing, 

O  for  a  thousand   tongues  to  sing 
My  dear  Redeemer's  praise. 

He  had  written  many  hymns  before  the  Pentecostal 
day  in  his  history,  but  not  one  of  them  was  the 
spontaneous  effusion  of  the  heart. 

It  was  never  Charles  Wesley's  desire  that  the 
Methodist  Society  should  be  separate  from  the 
Church  of  England.  He  did  not  assent  to  the  Meth- 
odist system  of  ordination,  but  this  difference  of 
opinion  did  not  disturb  the  ardent  friendship  of 
the  brothers.  It  was  John's  wish  that  he  and  Charles 
might  lie  side  by  side  in  the  burial  ground  of  the 
City  Eoad  Chapel,  but  Charles  said:  "I  have  lived, 
and  I  die,  in  the  communion  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  I  shall  be  buried  in  the  yard  of  my 
parish  Church."  He  died  in  London,  March  twen- 
ty-ninth, 1788,  preceding  John  three  years. 

For  nearly  fifty  years  the  stimulating  and  sanc- 
tifying song-power  did  not  depart  from  Charles  Wes- 
ley. He  had  exquisite  taste,  a  warm  love  for  music, 
and  his  soul  naturally  soared  on  the  wings  of  praise. 
He  was  in  the  completeness  of  his  powers  on  every 
great  occasion,  and  times  of  trouble  brought  forth 
his  best  hymns.  For  hours  of  joy  or  sorrow,  for 
days  of  triumph  or  nights  of  despair,  for  seasons  of 
great  revivals  or  times  of  persecution — in  fact,  for 


JESUS,   LOVER   OF  MY  SOUL.  73 

every  event  that  could  occur  in  the  life  of  an  indi- 
vidual or  in  the  history  of  a  nation,  he  had  an 
impassioned  song.  When  in  the  white-heat  of  his 
Christian  vigor,  in  a  storm  of  persecution,  when  the 
brothers  were  way-laid,  and  bonfires  were  made  of 
their  meeting  houses,  Charles  wrote, 

Arise,  my  soul,  arise, 
Shake    off    thy   guilty   fear. 

In  1744  the  spirit  of  persecution  was  fierce  in 
some  parts  of  England  against  the  Wesleys,  and 
during  the  trouble  with  France,  their  preachers 
were  impressed  into  the  army,  and  the  two  brothers 
dragged  before  magistrates,  and  when  released 
Charles  inspired  his  followers  by  this  splendid 
thanksgiving  hymn, 

Ye  servants  of  God,  your  Master  proclaim, 
And  publish  abroad  His   wonderful  name. 

It  was  during  these  same  troublous  times  that 
he  wrote  the  remarkably  beautiful  hymn  in  four 
stanzas, 

Come,    Thou    long-expected    Jesus, 

Born  to  set  Thy  people  free; 
From  our  fears  and  sins  release  us, 

Let  us  find  our  rest  in  Thee. 

Professor  Frederic  Mayer  Bird  of  Lehigh  University, 
eminent  among  the  clergy  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  is  inclined  to  rank  the  hymn  with  Jesus, 
Lover  of  my  Soul.     It  is  comparatively  new  to  the 


74  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Church  in  America,  but  all  hymnals  of  high  merit 
compiled  within  the  past  twenty-five  years  recognize 
its  great  worth.  Some  one  has  said  that  music  is 
half  of  any  grand  song;  and  the  reason  why  this 
charming  hymn  is  seldom  heard,  even  in  Methodist 
Churches,  is  that  the  tune  with  which  it  is  associated 
in  the  hymnal  of  that  denomination,  lacks  the  grace 
and  flow  of  the  words. 

About  one  year  after  Charles  Wesley's  conversion 
he  wrote  the  popular  Christmas  lyric, 

Hark!    the  Herald  Angels  sing 
Glory  to  our  new-born  King. 

This  is  one  of  the  ten  hymns  which  have  gained  the 
greatest  amount  of  favor  in  the  hymn-books  of  Great 
Britain.  It  has  undergone  several  changes,  but  the 
hymn  as  it  now  stands  in  a  majority  of  collections, 
is  mostly  the  work  of  Charles  Wesley. 

Wesley  was  the  most  prolific  hymn-writer  of  any 
country  or  age.  During  his  lifetime  he  published 
nearly  four  thousand  hymns  of  his  own  composition, 
and  at  his  death  he  left  about  two  thousand  in 
manuscript  form.  The  Eev.  J.  H.  Overton,  D.  D., 
Prebendary  of  Lincoln  Cathedral,  and  the  present 
Eector  of  Epworth,  says  "it  is  perfectly  marvelous 
how  many  of  these  hymns  rise  to  the  highest  degree 
of  excellence."  But  Wesley's  masterpiece  is  the 
sublime  prayer  which  the  Christian  Church  delights 
to  honor: 


JESIS,  LOVER   OF  MY  SOUL.  75 

Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Sou], 

Let  me  to   Thy   bosom  fly, 
While   the   nearer   waters   roll, 

While  the  tempest  still  is  high! 
Hide    me,    O    my    Savior,    hide, 

Till   the   storm   of   life   be   past; 
Safe   into   the   haven   guide, 

0  receive  my  soul  at  last! 

Other  refuge   have   I  none, 

Hangs  my  helpless  soul  on  Thee: 
Leave,  ah!  leave  me  not  alone, 

Still  support  and  comfort  me! 
All  my  trust  on  Thee  is  stayed, 

All  my  help  from  Thee  I  bring: 
Cover  my  defenseless  head 

With  the  shadow  of  Thy  wing. 

Wilt  Thou  not  regard  my  call? 

Wilt  Thou  not  accept  my  prayer? 
Lo!  I  sink,  I  faint,  I  fall — 

Lo!    on  Thee  I  cast  my  care: 
Reach  me  out  Thy  gracious  hand! 

While  I  of  Thy  strength  receive. 
Hoping  against  hope  I  stand, 

Dying,  and,  behold,  I  live! 

Thou,  0  Christ,  art  all  I  want; 

More  than  all   in  Thee  I  find: 
Raise  the  fallen,  cheer  the  faint, 

Heal  the  sick,  and  lead  the  blind. 
Just  and  holy  is  Thy  name; 

1  am  all  unrighteousness: 
False,  and  full  of  sin,  I  am; 

Thou  art  full  of  truth  and  grace. 

Plenteous  grace  with  Thee  is  found, 

Grace  to  cover  all  my  sin: 
Let  the  healing  streams  abound, 

Make  and  keep  me  pure  within. 


1T6  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Thou  of  life  the  fountain  art; 

Freely  let  me  take  of  Thee: 
Spring  Thou  up  within  my  heart, 

Rise  to  all  -eternity! 

For  a  century  and  a  half  this  hymn  has  been  "one  of 
the  master-tones  of  God."  Several  charming  stories 
have  been  published  concerning  the  origin  of  the 
hymn,  but  unfortunately  no  one  has  been  competent 
to  substantiate  any  one  of  them,  and  therefore  it  is 
presumable  that  they  have  no  foundation  in  fact.  The 
hymn  was  written  shortly  after  Charles  Wesley's  con- 
version, probably  in  1739,  and  was  printed  when 
the  first  Methodist  Society  was  about  six  months 
old.  It  would  indeed  be  interesting  to  Christian 
worshipers  of  every  name  if  the  personal  history  of 
Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul,  was  known;  but  what  cir- 
cumstance inspired  it  will  ever  remain  a  mystery,  as 
Wesley  did  not  put  upon  record  a  single  word  that 
would  indicate  the  experience  out  of  which  this  song 
of  holy  love  flowed  from  his  heart. 

The  hymn  is  pre-eminently  great.  The  Rev. 
George  Duffield,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  and  author 
of  Stand  up,  Stand  up  for  Jesus,  says:  "One  of  the 
most  blessed  days  of  my  life  was  when  I  found,  after 
my  harp  had  long  hung  on  the  willows,  that  I  could 
sing  again;  that  a  new  song  w^as  put  in  my  mouth; 
and  when,  ere  I  was  aware,  I  was  singing, 

Jesus,    Lover    of   my   Soul. 
If  there  is  anything  in  Christian  experience,  of  joy 


JESUS,  LOVER  OF  MY  SOUL.  77 

and  sorrow,  of  prosperity  and  affliction,  of  life  and 
death — that  hymn  is  the  hymn  of  the  ages." 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  when  describing  the 
dying  hours  of  her  venerable  father,  Dr.  Lyman 
Beecher,  said:  "The  last  indication  of  life,  on  the 
day  of  his  death  (January  tenth,  1863),  was  a  mute 
response  to  his  wife  repeating, 

Jesus,    Lover    of    my    soul, 
Let  me  to  Thy  bosom  fly." 

It  was  this  death-bed  scene  of  his  father  that  led 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  to  say:  "I  would  rather  have 
written  that  hymn  of  Wesley's  than  have  the  fame 
of  all  the  kings  that  ever  sat  upon  the  thrones  of 
power.  Thrones  and  they  that  sit  thereon,  perish, 
but  that  hymn  will  go  on  singing  until  the  last  trump 
brings  forth  the  angel  band;  and  then,  I  think,  it  will 
mount  up  on  some  lip  to  the  very  presence  of  God." 
The  Rev.  Dr.  George  C.  Lorimer,  a  Baptist,  of 
Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  names  Jesus,  Lover  of  my 
Soul,  as  one  of  the  first  hymns  to  which  his  great 
congregations  most  frequently  turn.  And  the  Rev. 
Dr.  David  James  Burrell,  a  Congregationalist,  pastor 
of  the  Collegiate  Church,  New  York,  says:  "Two  of 
the  most  popular  and  useful  hymns  are  Jesus,  Lover 
of  my  Soul,  and  Rock  of  Ages.  Both  are  wholly 
evangelical  and  highly  devotional.  Of  the  two  hymns 
I  should  say  the  former  has  the  deeper  and  more 
permanent  place  in  the  heart  of  the  Church.  This, 
no  doubt,  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  Martyn  is  a 


78  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

better  tune  than  Toplady.  Anyway,  the  people  seem 
to  carry  it  more  easily  and  heartily." 

There  is  a  familiar  and  an  interesting  incident 
that  connects  this  hymn  with  the  dying  hours  of  that 
distinguished  preacher,  revivalist,  and  educator, 
Charles  Grandison  Finney,  for  many  years  President 
of  Oberlin  College,  Ohio.  On  Sunday  evening, 
August  fifteenth,  1875,  he  and  Mrs.  Finney  were 
walking  about  the  College  grounds,  when  by  and  by 
the  choir  of  the  Church,  in  which  he  had  preached 
with  mighty  force  for  nearly  forty  years,  began  to 
sing  Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul,  as  part  of  the  service. 
It  was  a  calm,  beautiful,  impressive  evening  hour, 
and  when  the  venerable  doctor,  then  eighty-three 
years  old,  heard  the  delightful  strains  of  Martyn,  the 
words  of  the  song  came  to  his  saintly  soul  with  a 
new  and  fuller  meaning.  He  caught  the  lines  and 
carried  them  to  the  end  with  the  choir.  This  was 
Finney's  last  song  upon  earth.  Just  at  the  dawn  of 
morning  he  was  seized  with  a  severe  heart-affection, 
and  when  earth  cast  its  dark  shadow  about  him,  God 
took  him  gently  by  the  hand  and  led  him  through 
the  darkness  into  glory  and  immortality. 

Eecently  The  Boston  Globe  published  a  story  of 
more  than  usual  interest  showing  the  influence  of 
Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul.  A  few  years  ago  a  number 
of  Civil  War  veterans  were  -passengers  on  a  Mississippi 
steamer  (not  on  an  Atlantic  steamer  as  commonly 
stated),  when  one  evening  the  company,  discussing 
the  question  whether  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a 


JESUS,  LOVER  OF  MY  SOUL.  79 

special  Providence,  an  old  soldier  related  this  inci- 
dent: "During  the  Atlanta  campaign  in  1864,  I 
was  called  on  one  night  for  sentinel  duty.  It  was 
frightfully  dark,  the  enemy  was  near,  the  country 
full  of  pitfalls,  and  I  knew  that  my  life  was  in  mo- 
mentary peril.  Of  course,  I  had  faced  just  as  great 
risks  many  times  before,  but  somehow  on  this  par- 
ticular night  I  began  to  dwell  upon  the  danger  that 
surrounded  me,  until  I  was  in  a  state  of  nervous 
collapse.  In  the  effort  to  calm  my  fears  I  began  to 
sing  Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul,  very  much  on  the 
principle  of  a  boy  who  whistles  in  going  through  the 
woods.  I  sang  the  hymn  through  to  the  end,  and 
by  the  time  I  had  finished  it,  I  was  perfectly  calm 
and  fearless." 

Among  the  listeners  to  this  story  was  an  ex-Con- 
federate soldier,  who  at  the  close  asked:  "Did  you 
say  that  happened  before  Atlanta  in  1864?"  "Yes." 
"Well,  my  friend,  I  was  in  the  Confederate  army 
stationed  at  Atlanta.  I  wras  reconnoitering  one  night 
when  I  chanced  to  pass  near  a  sentinel  of  the  North- 
ern army  at  his  post.  I  had  determined  to  pop 
him  over,  and  was  bringing  my  grin  to  my  shoulder, 
when  I  heard  him  sing  the  words, 

Cover  my  defenseless  head 
With  the  shadow  of  Thy  wing. 

I  quickly  dropped  my  gun,  saying  to  myself:  'I  can't 
kill  that  man  were  he  ten  times  my  enemy/  " 

It  was  a  pathetic  scene  when  the  ex-Confederate 


80  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

finished  his  story,  and  the  two  old  veterans  of  oppos- 
ing armies  instinctively  clasped  each  other  by  the 
hand.  Tears  of  gratitude  came  to  the  eyes  of  the 
Union  soldier  when  he  heard  how  this  hymn-prayer 
had  saved  his  life. 

Only  a  few  years  since,  a  Sunday  afternoon  serv- 
ice was  held  in  the  woman's  department  of  the  prison 
on  BlackwelFs  Island,  New  York.  A  short,  practical 
sermon,  quite  suitable  for  the  time  and  place,  was 
delivered  by  the  minister.  But  not  in  the  least  did 
the  discourse  seem  to  affect  the  women.  It  fell  like 
good  seed  "upon  the  stoniest  ground."  When  the 
minister  concluded  his  sermon,  two  ladies  who  were 
visiting  the  prison,  sang  Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul. 
It  was  rendered  with  such  a  glow  of  warmth  that  the 
hard  faces  of  the  women-prisoners  soon  began  to 
soften;  then  heads  were  bowed,  and  before  the  hymn 
was  finished,  loud  sobs,  indicating  deep  contrition, 
were  heard  in  all  parts  of  the  chapel.  The  door  to 
many  hearts  was  opened  that  afternoon  by  the  beau- 
tiful and  effective  ministry  of  song. 

One  of  the  most  affecting  uses  of  a  hymn  in  the 
hour  of  suffering  and  death,  is  found  in  the  story 
of  a  drummer  boy  in  the  memorable  battle  of  Chicka- 
mauga,  fought  in  Tennessee,  on  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  of  September,  1863.  Tom,  as  the  boy  was 
called,  was  a  great  favorite  in  the  regiment  to  which 
he  belonged;  and  he  was  so  devout  and  faithful  that 
they  named  him  "the  young  deacon."  One  day  he 
seemed  to  carry  a  sad  heart,  and  when  questioned 


JESUS,  LOVER  OF  MY  SOUL.  81 

by  the  chaplain  as  to  his  troubles,  Tom  said:  "You 
know  that  my  little  sister  Mary  is  dead — died  when 
ten  years  old.  My  mother  was  poor  and  a  widow,  and 
she  never  seemed  like  herself  afterwards.  And  then 
she  died  too,  and  I  had  no  home,  and  I  came  to  the 
war.  But  last  night  I  dreamed  that  the  war  was  over 
and  I  went  back  home,  and  just  before  I  got  to  the 
house  my  mother  and  little  sister  came  out  to  meet 
me.  I  didn't  seem  to  remember  that  they  were  dead. 
And  my  mother,  in  her  smiles,  kissed  me,  and 
pressed  me  to  her  heart.  Oh  sir,  it  appeared  just  as 
real  as  you  are  now/' 

The  next  day  there  was  terrible  fighting  by  the 
two  great  armies,  and  Tom  was  busy  either  with 
his  drum  or  in  assisting  the  drum  corps  in  carrying 
the  wounded  and  dead  off  the  field.  Four  times  the 
ground  was  swept  and  occupied  by  the  contending 
forces.  But  the  darkness  of  night  came  on,  and 
the  fearful  carnage  ceased  for  the  time.  It  was  known 
that  Tom  was  among  the  wounded  and  was  left  with 
the  dead  and  dying.  In  the  stillness  of  the  night 
a  voice  was  heard  singing  away  off  on  the  field  where 
no  comrade  dare  venture.  It  sounded  like  the  voice 
of  Tom.  Softly  and  sweetly  the  words  floated  on  the 
wings  of  night, 

Jesus,  Lover  of  my  soul, 
Let  me  to  Thy  bosom  fly. 

When  the  voice  reached  the  pleading  and  pathetic 
lines  of  the  hymn, 


82  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Leave,  ah!  leave  me  not  alone, 

Still  support  and  comfort  me; 

it  became  faint  and  tremulous,  and  then  silent.  In 
the  morning  Tom  was  found  leaning  against  a  stump, 
and  his  drum  was  by  his  side.  His  dream  had  become 
a  reality.  The  war  was  over.  He  had  gone  to  meet 
his  mother  and  Mary  in  an  eternity  of  loving  com- 
panionship. 

In  speaking  of  Wesley  as  a  hymnist,  Professor 
Bird  says:  "No  other  name  in  British  sacred  lyric 
poetry  can  be  compared  with  his,  and  there  does  not 
exist  in  England  or  America,  that  Christian  Church, 
sect,  or  man,  that  can  afford  to  forget  his  obligations 
to  Charles  Wesley/' 

And  in  his  Dictionary  of  Hymnology,  the  Eev. 
Dr.  Julian  gives  Wesley  this  high  praise:  "The  say- 
ing that  a  really  good  hymn  is  as  rare  an  appearance 
as  that  of  a  comet,  is  falsified  by  the  work  of  Charles 
Wesley;  for  hymns  which  are  really  good  in  every 
respect,  flowed  from  his  pen  in  quick  succession,  and 
death  alone  stopped  the  course  of  the  perennial 
stream." 

More  than  a  hundred  years  have  passed  into  his- 
tory since  Charles  Wesley  joined  the  "invisible  choir." 
He  was  an  able  preacher,  but  perhaps  no  one  can  now 
recall  a  single  paragraph,  or  even  a  sentence,  he 
uttered  in  any  of  his  splendid  sermons.  But  many  of 
his  hymns  have  a  deathless  living.  They  illustrate 
how  the  music  of  the  soul  becomes  the  hallowed 
prayer  of  millions  of  people. 


JESUS,  LOVER  OF  MY  SOUL.  83 

The  Christian  Church  in  all  English-speaking 
lands  clings  with  the  tenderest  love  to  the  great 
hymns  of  that  singer  whose  soul  was  formed  for 
holy  music,  and  "who  was  impelled  by  delightful 
necessity  to  give  poetic  expression  to  the  thoughts 
that  breathed  and  the  words  that  burned  within 
him/' 


X. 

A  Famous  Resignation  Hymn, 

AXY  hymns  which  have  vastly  ennobled 
the  music  of  the  Church  and  enriched 
the  flow  of  songs  of  the  soul^  and  have 
a  broad  and  firm  grasp  upon  the  Christian 
world,  have  come  from  the  heart  of  woman.  The 
tragic  fate  of  her  heart's  first  love  immortalized  the 
name  of  Anne  Steele  in  sacred  song.  The  refiner's 
fire  began  its  work  early  in  her  girlhood,  and  for 
half  a  century  her  life  was  clouded  by  sorrow. 

Miss  Steele  was  born  at  Broughton,  Hampshire, 
England,  in  1716.  Her  father  was  a  timber  mer- 
chant, and  also  a  lay-preacher,  and  it  is  said  of  him 
that  he  officiated  at  the  Broughton  Baptist  Church 
for  nearly  sixty  years,  and  always  declined  compen- 
sation for  his  services.  In  her  childhood  she  sustained 
severe  injury  in  an  accident  that  made  her  a  life- 
long cripple.  In  1737  a  painful  circumstance  greatly 
shattered  her  already  impaired  constitution.  She 
was  engaged  to  a  young  man  of  unusual  intellectual 
attainments  and  fine  Christian  character,  but  only 
a  few  hours  before  the  time  set  for  the  wedding, 
the  heart-breaking  news  was  received  that  her  affi- 
anced, Robert  Elscourt,  was  drowned.  On  that  ter- 
rible day  the  earthly  hopes  of  Anne  Steele  were 
buried  in  the  souPs  deepest  sorrow,  and  for  forty 


A   FAMOUS  RESIGNATION  HYMN.  85 

years  it  seemed  as  if  her  heart  was  never  again 
warmed  by  the  touch  of  human  love.  She  entreated 
her  friends  to  leave  her  alone  "in  the  silent  and  hal- 
lowed presence  of  her  God,"  and  out  of  her  great 
grief  and  soul-consecration  was  born  one  of  the 
6weetest  night-singers  of  the  age. 

Though  heart-broken,  Miss  Steele  did  not  yield 
to  despair.  "She  made  herself  a  ministering  spirit, 
devoting  her  life  to  deeds  of  love  and  mercy."  In 
the  course  of  her  life  she  wrote  one  hundred  and 
forty-four  hymns,  and  a  collection  of  them  was  first 
published  in  1760,  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  The- 
odosia.  Another  collection  of  her  poems  was 
printed  in  1769.  and  it  was  through  this  edition 
that  her  hymns  were  first  made  available  for  con- 
gregational use.  She  continued  her  literary  and 
Christian  work  almost  to  the  day  of  her  death, 
which  occurred  at  Broughton  in  November,  1778. 
Her  father,  who  died  in  1769,  made  a  complete  gift 
of  his  time  and  talent  to  the  Church,  and  Anne, 
following  his  example,  consecrated  all  the  profits 
accruing  from  the  sale  of  her  books,  to  objects  of 
Christian  philanthropy. 

No  voice  ever  sang  in  sickness  or  in  grief  more 
tenderly  than  Anne  Steele's,  and  the  beauty  and 
purity  of  her  hymns  have  endeared  them  to  all  evan- 
gelical communions. 

There  is  a  singing  mountain  just  outside  of 
Honolulu  in  Hawaii,  called  Tantalus,  the  top  of 
which  is  "voiced  like  a  dreamland,"  and  even  the 


86  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

most  staid  nature  "will  thrill  and  be  mystified  by 
its  sweetness  and  melancholy."  The  natives  believe 
that  the  sounds  come  from  the  ghosts  of  departed 
warriors,  but  the  real  explanation  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  singing  is  simply  "the  beating  of  the 
ocean-breakers  on  the  windward  shore,,  and  the 
cadence  of  the  calmer  surf  below  alternating  with 
the  angry  and  wilder  scolding  of  the  storm  above." 

In  the  sunshine  Tantalus  never  strikes  a  note 
that  touches  anybody's  feelings.  Its  deep,  melan- 
choly sounds  are  heard  only  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night.  And  had  it  not  been  for  the  waves  of  sorrow 
which  beat  so  vehemently  against  the  soul  of  Miss 
Steele,  her  heart  would  never  have  been  voiced  to 
sing  the  hymns  whose  preciousness  and  power  lie  in 
their  sweet,  pathetic  tones.  From  the  time  her  soul 
gave  out  its  first  hymn  to  the  hour  of  her  swan- 
song,  her  personal  sufferings  were  reflected  in  her 
verse. 

Of  the  noted  women  to  enrich  the  treasury  of 
Church  song,  Anne  Steele  was  the  first.  There  is 
a  lasting  quality  about  some  of  her  hymns.  Her 
voice  has  been  silent  for  more  than  a  century 
but  until  ten  years  ago  more  of  her  verses  were 
found  in  hymnals  of  various  denominations  than 
from  any  other  woman  that  ever  lived.  Perhaps  the 
sweetest  of  all  her  hymns  is  that  familiar  one  which 
came  out  of  a  very  sick  room  one  hundred  and  forty 
years  ago: 


A   FAMOUS   RESIGNATION  HYMN.  87 

Father,  whate'er  of  earthly  bliss 

Thy  Sovereign  will  denies, 
Accepted  at  Thy  throne  of  grace, 

Let  this  petition  rise: 

Give  me  a  calm,   a  thankful   heart, 

From   every   murmur  free; 
The  blessings  of  Thy  grace  impart, 

And  make  me  live  to  Thee. 

Let  the  sweet  hope  that  Thou  art  mine 

My  life  and  death  attend; 
Thy  presence  through  my  journey  shine, 

And  crown  my  journey's  end. 

This  hymn  of  beautiful,  quiet  resignation,  was  intro- 
duced in  the  Church  of  England  in  1776,  and  ever 
since  that  time  its  use  in  all  English-speaking  coun- 
tries has  been  ver)'  extensive.  There  is  hardly  any- 
thing in  the  hymn-books  more  tender  than  Father, 
Whate'er  of  Earthly  Bliss,  when  sung  to  Naomi, 
arranged  by  our  honored  Lowell  Mason  from  Jo- 
hann  Georg  Nageli. 

Among  other  hymns  by  Miss  Steele  which  are 
still  doing  good  service  in  the  Churches  are,  Dear 
Refuge  of  my  Weary  Soul;  Far  From  these  Narrow 
Scenes  of  Night;  Great  God,  this  Sacred  Day  of 
Thine;  To  Our  Redeemer's  Glorious  Name;  My  God, 
My  Father,  Blissful  Name.  The  last  is  a  splendid 
hymn-prayer,  and  Archdeacon  Wilson  of  Manchester, 
England,  says  it  was  the  first  of  the  three  hundred 
hymns  he  committed  to  memory  when  a  boy,  and 
which  "entered  into  his  bone  and  blood,  as  the  true 
philosophy  of  life  and  the  wisest  prayer." 

Dr.  Julian  says:  "Miss  Steele  may  not  inappro- 
priately be  compared  with  Frances  R.  Havergal,  our 


88  HYMXS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Theodosia  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  both  there 
is  the  same  evangelic  fervor,  in  both  the  same  in- 
tense personal  devotion  to  the  Lord  Jesus.  But 
while  Miss  Steele  seems  to  think  of  Him  more  fre- 
quently as  her  bleeding,  dying  Lord — dwelling  on 
His  sufferings  in  their  physical  aspect — Miss  Haver- 
gal  oftener  refers  to  His  living  help  and  sympathy, 
recognizes  with  gladness  His  present  claims  as  Mas- 
ter and  King,  and  anticipates  almost  with  ecstasy 
His  second  coming.  Looking  at  the  whole  of  Miss 
Steele's  hymns,  we  find  in  them  a  wider  range  of 
thought  than  in  Miss  Havergal's  compositions.  She 
treats  of  a  greater  variety  of  subjects.  On  the  other 
hand,  Miss  Havergal,  living  in  this  age  of  missions 
and  general  philanthropy,  has  much  more  to  say 
concerning  Christian  work  and  personal  service  for 
Christ  and  humanity." 

Some  one  has  said  that  the  best  ages  of  the 
world,  the  best  hours  of  history,  are  in  touch  with 
the  periods  of  struggle.  And  likewise  our  best  hymn6 
are  closely  in  touch  with  human  suffering.  Great 
hymns  had  been  born  of  pain  and  struggle  before 
Anne  Steele  began  to  sing  her  heart-songs,  yet  it 
seemed  that  a  voice  "more  tender  and  delicate,  giv- 
ing utterance  to  the  pensive  yearning,  and  glowing 
emotion  characteristic  of  the  sisterhood  of  Christian 
believers,  was  needed  to  perfect  the  harmony  of  pub- 
lic praise:''  and  that  pathetic  voice  has  kept  on  sing- 
ing all  these  years  and  is  still  teaching  mankind  the 
divine  art  of  carrying  sorrow. 


XI. 

There  is  a  Fountain  Filled  with  Blood. 

A1XFULLY  interesting  is  the  story  of  the 
unhappy  life  of  William  Cowper,  one  of 
the  most  notable  names  in  the  Church 
hymnal,  and  one  of  the  brightest  suns  of  "England's 
literary  firmament."  It  has  been  said  that  in  the 
entire  annals  of  mental  disease  there  is  no  case  so 
widely  known,  or  which  has  excited  so  deep  interest 
and  sympathy,  as  the  insanity  of  the  greatest  poet 
of  affection  the  world  has  produced. 

Cowper  was  born  at  Great  Berkhampstead,  En- 
gland, in  1731.  From  his  early  childhood  he  was  a 
sensitive  plant,  and  in  the  death  of  his  mother  when 
he  was  six  years  old  "he  lost  that  shelter  and  ma- 
ternal love  and  care  which  his  tender  and  delicate 
nature  needed.*'  When  ten  years  old  he  was  sent 
to  Westminster  School  where  he  spent  seven  or 
eight  years,  after  which  he  selected  the  profession 
of  law,  and  entered  the  office  of  a  solicitor  in  Lon- 
don, where  he  did  but  little  more  than  idle  away 
three  years. 

The  first  shadow  of  that  awful  melancholy  which 

clouded  all  his  future  life,  appeared  when  Cowper 

about  twenty  years  old.     In  1754  he  was  called 

to  the  bar.  but  for  nine  years  "he  neither  sought 

business  nor  business  sought  him/'     An  influential 


90  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

friend  then  obtained  for  him  a  clerkship  in  the 
House  of  Lords;  but  when  Cowper  learned  that  he 
must  appear  before  the  bar  of  the  Lords  for  exam- 
ination, he  became  painfully  despondent,  and  three 
times  attempted  to  commit  suicide.  He  was  taken 
to  an  asylum  at  St.  Albans  and  placed  under  the 
care  of  Dr.  Cotton,  himself  a  poet  of  some  repute, 
and  the  two  years  spent  in  fellowship  with  the  "lit- 
tle physician,"  as  he  was  called,  proved  a  healing 
balm  to  Cowper. 

In  1765  he  removed  to  Huntingdon,  near  Cam- 
bridge, and  two  years  later  he  settled  at  Olney,  and 
here  began  the  delightful  intimacy  between  the  poet 
and  the  celebrated  John  Newton,  who  was  curate 
at  that  place.  It  was  here  that  the  gentle  invalid 
came  directly  under  the  influence  and  spiritual 
sway  of  Newton's  extremely  earnest  religious  life. 
Here  he  learned  to  lead  religious  meetings,  and  to 
exercise  active  piety  among  the  poor  of  the  parish. 
Here  were  written  his  portion  of  the  Olney  Hymns, 
some  of  which  have  filled  the  religious  world  with 
his  fame. 

Cowper's  afflictions  seemed  to  "fall  in  showers.5' 
After  residing  at  Olney  six  years  the  clouds  again 
settled  over  his  mind,  and  for  the  following  ten 
years  he  lived  more  or  less  in  mental  gloom.  In 
1779  Newton  was  given  the  curacy  at  St.  Mary  Wool- 
noth,  London,  and  thus  ended  twelve  years  of  charm- 
ing fellowship  of  these  two  remarkable  men.  In 
human  history  there  is  hardly  anything  more  inter- 


THERE  18  A  FO UNTAIN  FILLED  WITH  BLOOD.     91 

esting  or  unique  than  their  companionship  at  Olney. 
Newton,  with  his  intense  enthusiasm,  and  his  iron 
frame  still  unshaken  by  the  hardships  and  excesses 
of  an  ungodly  life  on  ship-board  and  in  hostile  lands, 
now  gave  his  consecrated  life  and  redeemed  energies 
to  Christ,  and  poured  forth  the  joy  and  hope  and 
love  of  his  regenerated  nature  from  the  pulpit  and 
in  his  Olney  hymns.  Cowper,  gentle,  frail,  timid, 
and  brooding  over  the  inward  horrors  of  his  men- 
tal darkness,  but  always  as  harmless  and  lovely  as 
"the  lilies  he  loved,"  wrote  in  the  intervals  of  his 
terrible  malady,  those  trembling  and  immortal 
flowers  of  song  which  the  Church  will  "ever  pre- 
serve with  loving  care." 

Cowper's  removal  in  1786  to  Weston,  one  mile 
from  Olney,  gave  him  pleasant  associations  and 
largely  increased  his  personal  comfort;  but  the 
tangled  meshes  of  his  mind  were  not  unwoven  for 
any  considerable  time  during  his  residence  there. 
Mrs.  Unwin,  who  was  his  devoted  nurse  for  nearly 
twenty-five  years,  died  in  1796,  and  this  event  greatly 
deepened  his  dejection.  The  cloud  of  melancholy 
became  so  dark  that  he  was  taken  to  the  home  of  a 
friend  at  East  Dereham,  where  the  life  which  had 
been  "in  reality  a  tragedy,"  closed  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  April,  1800. 

The  last  of  Cowper's  poems  was  written  on  the 
twentieth  of  March,  1799.  It  is  called  The  Casta- 
way, and  is  founded  on  an  account  of  a  sailor  bein^ 
swept  over-board  in  a  storm  during  one  of  Admiral 


92  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Anson's  voyages.  The  first  and  last  stanzas  "pathet- 
ically illustrate  the  awful  sorrow  under  which  Cow- 
per  lived  and  died:" 

Obscurest  night  involved  the  sky; 

The  Atlantic  billows  roared, 
When  such  a  destined  wretch  as  I, 

Washed  headlong  from  on  board, 
Of  friends,  of  hope,  of  all  bereft, 
His  floating  home  forever  left. 

No  voice  divine  the  storm  allayed, 

No  light  propitious  shone; 
When,  snatched  from  all  effectual  aid, 

We  perished,  each  alone: 
But  I  beneath  a  rougher  sea, 
And  whelmed  in  deeper  gulfs  than  he. 

A  few  years  since  The  Atlantic  Monthly  printed 
the  following  impressive  sentence  on  Cowper:  "This 
poor  sick  soul,  who  dwells  likes  a  frail  child  in  the 
shelter  of  feminine  sympathy,  and  for  whom  there 
is  no  way  but  that  toward  madness,  is  inspired  to 
be  the  voice  and  the  courage  of  a  sentiment  which 
we  in  our  day  have  seen  extinguish  slavery  on 
fields  of  battle." 

In  Mrs.  Browning's  exquisite  lines  on  Cowper's 
Grave,  is  the  following  beautiful  and  affecting  stanza 
which  "touches  a  sympathetic  chord  in  every  heart :" 

O  poets,  from  a  maniac's  tongue  was  poured  the  deathlesa 
singing! 

O  Christians,  at  your  cross  of  hope  a  hopeless  hand  was  cling- 
ing, 

0  men,  this  man,  in  brotherhood,  your  weary  hearts  beguiling, 

Groaned  inly  while  he  taught  you  peace,  and  died  while  ye 
were  smiling. 


THERE  IS  A  FO UNTAIN  FILLED  WITH  BLOOD.     93 

Cowper  was  one  of  the  great  poets  of  the  religious 
revival  that  marked  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Of  the  Olney  Hymns  he  wrote  sixty-six, 
several  of  which  are  among  the  highly  prized  treas- 
ures of  the  Christian  Church.  One  of  the  earliest 
contributions  to   that   collection, 

Far  from   the   world,   0   Lord,   I   flee, 
From  strife  and  tumult  far; 

has  much  to  do  with  the  personal  history  of  Cow- 
per. After  quitting  St.  Albans  he  was  taken  to 
Huntingdon  by  his  brother,  on  Saturday,  June  twen- 
ty-second, 1765,  and  was  left  alone  among  strangers. 
In  his  autobiography  he  says  he  went  to  church  on 
Sunday,  that  he  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  sermon, 
and  that  he  seemed  to  speak  to  the  Lord  face  to 
face  as  a  man  conversing  with  his  friend,  except  that 
"my  speech  was  only  in  tears  of  joy  and  groanings 
which  cannot  be  uttered."  Immediately  after  the 
service  he  retired  to  a  "sacred  nook  in  the  corner  of 
the  field,"  where  he  had  prayed  the  day  before,  and 
this  nook  seems  to  be  the  birth-place  of  the  beautiful 
hymn. 

Perhaps  the  most  charming  and  tender  hymn 
that  came  from  the  troubled  heart  of  Cowper  begins 
with  this  stanza, 

0  for  a  closer  walk  with  God, 

A  calm  and  heavenly  frame, 
A  light  to  shine  upon  the  road 

That  leads  me  to  the  Lamb! 


94  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

This  composition  is  so  perfect  and  popular  that  it 
stands  among  the  elect  songs  which  have  found 
places  in  the  hymnals  of  all  Churches.  Meddlesome 
hymn-menders  have  not  touched  a  single  line  of  the 
hymn,  and  happily  it  is  sung  around  the  world  with 
absolutely  no  change  from  the  original. 

The  reader  understands  that  much  of  Cowper's 
life  was  spent  in  the  gloom  of  melancholy  madness. 
His  suicidal  impulses  were  frequent.  The  story  is 
told  that  in  1773  he  attempted  to  drown  himself  in 
the  river  Ouse,  but  by  some  fortuitous  event  his  pur- 
pose failed,  and  when  his  mental  shadow  was  mo- 
mentarily dispelled  he  wrote  the  sublimest  of  all 
hymns  on  Divine  Providence, 

God    moves    in    a    mysterious   way 

His  wonders  to  (perform; 
He  plants  His  footsteps  in  the  sea, 

And  rides  upon  the  storm. 

But  it  is  not  clear  from  the  testimony  that  this 
popular  account  of  the  origin  of  the  hymn  is  trust- 
worthy. Unquestionably,  the  hymn  was  written  at 
a  period  not  far  removed  from  Cowper's  sad  mental 
break-down  of  1773.  The  hymn  is  classable  with 
the  best  of  English  sacred  songs;  and  the  late  James 
Thomas  Fields,  a  master  in  English  literature,  says, 
"To  be  the  author  of  such  a  hymn  as  God  moves 
in  a  Mysterious  Way,  is  an  achievement  that  angels 
themselves  might  envy." 

But  the  hymn  that  has  made  more  history,  and 
is  oftener  used  than  anything  else  Cowper  wrote,  is 
composed  of  five  simple  stanzas: 


THERE  IS  A  FO  UN  TAIN  FILLED  WITH  BLOOD.     95 

There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood, 

Drawn  from  Immanuers  veins; 
And  sinners,  plunged  beneath  that  flood, 

Lose  all  their  guilty  stains. 

The  dying  thief  rejoiced  to  see 
That   fountain  in   his  day; 
And  there  have  I,  as  vile  as  he, 
Washed  all  my  sins  away. 

Dear  dying  Lamb,  Thy  precious  blood 
Shall  never  lose  its  power, 
TiD  all  the  ransomed  church  of  God 
Be  saved  to  sin  no  more. 

E'er  since,   by   faith,   I   saw   the   stream 

Thy  flowing  wounds  supply, 
Redeeming  love  has  been  my  theme, 

And  shall  be  till  I  die. 

Then,  in  a  nobler,  sweeter  song, 

I'll  sing  Thy  power  to  save, 
When  this  poor  lisping,  stamm'ring  tongue 

Lies  silent  in  the  grave. 

This  is  a  great  hymn.  In  beauty,  tenderness, 
and  literary  merit,  it  cannot  be  compared  with  other 
hymns  of  Cowper.  The  simile  in  the  first  stanza  is 
revolting  to  some  critics,  but  the  hymn  is  hallowed 
by  many  precious  associations,  and  will  continue  to 
make  glad  the  Churches  of  God.  We  must  not  be 
unmindful  of  the  fact  that  every  line  of  it  is  a  heart- 
utterance  from  poor  Cowper.  It  was  inspired  by  "the 
soothing,  restraining,  and  purifying  influence  of  that 
religion  that  had  stood  for  forty  years  between  him 
and  the  madman's  cell,  or  the  suicide's  grave." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  W.   Garrett  Horder,  of  London, 


96  ETMNS  HISTOMWALLt  FAMOUS 

does  not  give  the  hymn  a  place  in  his  excellent  col- 
lection of  Congregational  Hymns;  and  not  long  since, 
in  an  article  published  in  The  Outlook,  he  said: 
"There  is  a  Fountain  Pilled  with  Blood,  is  the  out- 
come of  a  morbid  mind  of^the  gentle  poet,  and  of 
the  hyper-evangelicalism  of  the  time  in  which  his 
lot  was  cast.  Use  and  sacred  association  hide  the 
carnal  elements  of  this  hymn  from  many,  but  surely 
the  time  has  come  when  it  should  have  a  solemn  but 
speedy  burial/'  But  the  popularity  of  the  hymn,  and 
its  importance  from  a  spiritual  viewpoint,  are  shown 
in  this  significant  fact;  almost  every  prominent 
hymnal  in  the  United  States  contains  it.  Many  of 
the  later  editions  have  been  edited  with  distinctive 
ability,  and  I  may  add,  with  rigid  discrimination  in 
the  choice  of  hymns,  and  not  one  of  them  ha«  dis- 
carded There  is  a  Fountain  filled  with  Blood. 

One  can  find  many  incidents  of  historic  value 
which  illustrate  the  power  of  this  hymn.  In  June, 
1870,  an  international  Convention  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  assembled  at  Indian- 
apolis, Indiana.  Dwight  L.  Moody  of  Chicago,  and 
Ira  D.  Sankey  of  Newcastle,  Pennsylvania,  were 
members  of  the  Convention.  The  two  men  were 
strangers  to  each  other.  At  one  of  the  morning 
services  the  singing  lacked  the  spirit  of  true-hearted 
praise,  and  some  one  acquainted  with  Mr.  Sankey 
invited  him  to  take  charge  of  the  music.  He  went 
forward,  and  among  the  hymns  he  gave  out  was 
There  is  a  Fountain  filled  with  Blood.     The  soul- 


THERE  18  A  FOUNTAIN  FILLED  WITH  BLOOD.     97 

feeling  with  which  he  sang  that  particular  hymn, 
made  a  wonderful  impression  upon  the  audience, 
and  especially  upon  Mr.  Moody.  He  had  discovered 
his  man.  The  evangelist  and  the  singer  were  in- 
troduced, they  formed  an  alliance;  and  only  four 
years  afterwards,  the  mighty  revival  spirit  that 
swept  over  Great  Britain,  when  millions  of  hearts 
and  tongues  were  moved  as  they  had  not  been  moved 
for  many  years,  was  the  work  of  the  gospel  message 
proclaimed  in  sermon  and  song  by  Moody  and 
Sankey. 

There  comes  a  story  from  London  that  John 
Cross,  a  gentleman  of  large  benevolence,  and  who, 
like  John  Wanamaker  of  Philadelphia,  was  highly 
successful  as  a  Bible  teacher,  had  a  notorious  infidel 
for  a  neighbor.  Mr.  Cross  took  a  noteworthy  inter- 
est in  the  man's  spiritual  welfare,  and  several  times 
endeavored  to  reach  his  bedside,  but  his  wife,  obey- 
ing the  commands  of  her  dying  husband,  sternly 
refused  to  allow  any  one  to  converse  with  him  on 
the  subject  of  religion.  But  the  good  man  was  not 
discouraged,  and  he  soon  solved  the  difficulty.  In 
the  neighborhood  was  a  little  girl  whose  voice  in 
song  was  always  sweet  and  impressive,  and  Mr. 
Cross  said  to  her,  "Mabel,  would  you  mind  singing 
the  hymn,  There  is  a  Fountain  filled  with  Blood, 
in  the  room  of  yonder  window  where  a  poor  man 
is  very  sick?"  Mabel  was  glad  to  do  so  kind  a 
service,  and  Mr.  Cross  gave  her  a  handful  of  beau- 
tiful flowers,  and  in  a  few  minutes  she  was  admitted 


98  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

into  the  room,  and  laying  the  flowers  on  a  table 
near  the  bed,  she  began  the  hymn.  Line  after  line 
was  sung  tenderly  and  touchingly,  and  presently  the 
sick  man  was  overcome  .with  emotion,  and  in  a  trem- 
ulous voice  he  asked:  "Where,  my  child,  did 
you  get  that  song?"  When  he  learned  that  Mabel 
was  a  member  of  Mr.  Cross's  Bible  class,  he  made 
the  request  that  the  teacher  should  call  at  the  room, 
and  the  sequel  can  be  told  in  a  single  line — "a  brand 
plucked  from  the  burning." 

Some  years  ago  a  thrilling  account  of  the  ca- 
reer of  a  notorious  robber  was  published  in  the  New 
York  papers.  He  had  been  arrested  many  times, 
but  prison  discipline  made  no  hopeful  impression 
upon  him.  But  he  had  grown  tired  of  the  hard 
life  he  was  living  and  seemed  anxious  to  reform. 
An  evangelist  talked  kindly  to  him  and  prayed  fer- 
vently for  him,  yet  that  did  not  seem  to  avail.  The 
first  stanza  of  There  is  a  Fountain  filled  with 
Blood  was  then  sung,  but  the  obdurate  heart  of  the 
man  was  not  touched.  The  second  stanza  of  the 
hymn  was  rendered  with  all  the  pathos  and  sym- 
pathy the  heart  and  voice  of  the  evangelist  could 
produce, 

The  dying  thief  rejoiced  to  see 

That  fountain  in   his  day; 
And  there  have  I,  as  vile  as  he, 

Washed  all  my  sins  away. 

The  criminal  was  melted  to  tears.  The  hymn  be- 
came his  door  of  hope;  and  the  life  that  had  been 


THERE  18  A  FOUNTAIN  FILLED  WITH  BLOOD.     99 

so  long  abandoned  to  vice  and  crime,   was  finally 
dedicated  to  Christian  service. 

The  hymn  has  been  a  wonderful  power  in  every 
great  revival  that  has  swept  over  this  and  other  lands 
during  the  past  century.  It  has  broken  down  as 
many  hard  hearts,  and  changed  as  many  lives,  as 
any  other  hymn  in  the  language.  A  song  of  hope 
that  has  so  deeply  moved  the  souls  of  men,  cannot 
be  lost  to  the  service  of  the  Church. 

It  would  be  inappropriate  to  close  this  chapter 
without  at  least  a  brief  mention  of  the  distinguished 
John  Newton.  For  twelve  years  at  Olney  he  was 
the  constant  companion  and  spiritual  adviser  of  Wil- 
liam Cowper.  He  was  born  in  London  in  1725,  and 
in  his  childhood  he  lost  the  loving  care  of  his 
mother.  At  the  age  of  eleven  he  went  to  sea  with 
his  father,  and  from  that  time  till  he  was  nearly 
twenty-five,  his  life  was  one  of  abject  degradation. 
He  was  flogged  for  desertion,  and  many  times  was 
put  in  irons.  Before  Newton  was  eighteen  he 
became  an  infidel,  and  finally  was  abandoned  as  a 
moral  wreck. 

Once  Newton  was  left  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
and  wandered  in  the  groves  of  Sierra  Leone,  sub- 
sisting chiefly  on  herbs,  and  for  fifteen  months  he 
did  not  feel  the  touch  of  sympathy  from  any  human 
soul.  He  was  finally  picked  up  by  an  English 
trader,  and  on  the  homeward  voyage  the  vessel 
encountered  a  terrific  storm.  But  the  tempest  of 
the  sea  was  hardly  less  severe  than  the  tempest  in 


100  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Newton's  soul.  He  broke  down  completely,  and 
became  a  changed  man.  In  the  course  of  time  he 
began  to  study  for  the  ministry  to  which  his  pray- 
ing mother  had  devoted  him,  and  in  1764  was 
ordained  and  became  curate  of  Olney. 

It  was  while  at  Olney  that  Newton  proposed  to 
Cowper  that  they  should  join  in  writing  a  volume 
of  hymns,  first,  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the 
faith  and  comfort  of  sincere  Christians;  and  second, 
that  it  might  be  a  monument  to  perpetuate  the 
remembrance  of  an  intimate  and  endeared  friend- 
ship. The  volume  was  published  in  1779,  and 
became  known  as  Olney  Hymns.  It  attained  a  sur- 
prising popularity  throughout  Great  Britain,  partly 
because  the  hymns  of  Cowper  were  read  with  pecu- 
liar and  increasing  interest;  and  partly  perhaps 
because  the  book  was  unique,  being  the  first  collec- 
tion of  original  hymns  published  by  a  priest  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Of  the  three  hundred  and 
forty-nine  hymns  in  the  volume,  Cowper  is  credited 
with  sixty-six,  and  the  others  are  the  compositions 
of  Newton. 

While  Newton  has  probably  not  written  any- 
thing that  will  endure  like  some  of  the  hymns  of 
his  friend  Cowper,  he  has  given  the  Church  a  few 
admirable  songs  which  are  still  in  popular  use. 
Glorious  Things  of  Thee  are  Spoken,  is  a  dignified 
ascription  of  praise.  Safely  Through  another  Week, 
is  a  beautiful  hymn  for  Sabbath  morning,  and  is 
found  in  nearly  all  hymnals.    How  Sweet  the  Name 


THERE  IS  A  FOUNTAIN  FILLED  WITH  BLOOD.   101 

of  Jesus  Sounds,  is  so  full  of  heart-felt  gratitude, 
and  has  such  an  exuberant  overflow  of  soul-enthusi- 
asm for  Christ,  that  it  has  been  accepted  by  the 
Church  universal.  But  like  all  other  prolific  hymn- 
writers  before  and  since  his  time,  Newton  wrote  too 
much  for  his  own  fame. 

Newton  remained  at  St.  Mary  Woolnoth  till  his 
death  in  1807.  He  was  a  remarkably  successful 
priest.  He  was  the  means  of  the  conversion  of 
Claudius  Buchanan,  the  missionary  who  poured 
such  a  flood  of  gospel  light  on  the  East  Indies. 
Thomas  Scott,  the  renowned  commentator,  was  also 
among  Newton's  trophies. 


XII. 

Blest  be  the  Tie  that  Binds. 

MONG  the  world's  best  hymns  is  that  delight- 
ful expression  of  Christian  fellowship  and 
love,  Blest  be  the  Tie  that  Binds.  It  is  the 
masterpiece  of  the  Rev.  John  Fawcett,  D.  D.,  born  at 
Lidget  Green,  near  Bradford,  England,  in  1739.  He  was 
eleven  years  old  when  his  father  died,  and  the  mother 
and  several  children  being  left  in  straitened  circum- 
stances, John  was  placed  under  the  care  of  a  Lon- 
don tradesman  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  the  appren- 
ticeship to  continue  six  years.  He  was  sixteen  when 
he  heard  Whitfield  preach  one  of  his  marvelous  ser- 
mons, and  the  occasion  marked  the  beginning  of 
young  Fawcett's  Christian  life.  Years  afterwards, 
in  writing  of  the  event,  he  said:  "As  long  as  life 
remains  I  shall  remember  both  the  text  and  the  ser- 
mon." 

George  Whitfield  did  not  perpetuate  his  influence 
by  writing  any  hymns,  but,  as  the  late  Rev.  E.  M. 
Long  suggests,  the  great  preacher  was  the  means 
of  the  conversion  of  some  hymn-writers  who,  after 
the  passing  of  a  century,  are  still  shaping  the  des- 
tiny of  human  souls.  Three  years  before  Fawcett 
was  converted,  another  young  tradesman  of  London, 
Robert  Robinson,  a  hair-dresser,  was  convicted  of 
sin  under  the  magic  power  of  Whitfield,  and  many 


BLEST  BE  THE  TIE  THAT  BINDS.  103 

years  later,  and  when  in  the  golden  days  of  his  Chris- 
tian experience,  he  wrote  the  popular  hymn, 

Come   Thou   Fount   of   every   blessing, 
Tune  my  heart  to  sing  Thy  praise. 

Fawcett  belonged  to  the  Methodist  Society  for 
three  years  after  his  conversion,  and  then  joined  the 
Baptist  Church  at  Bradford.  Soon  after  the  close 
of  his  apprenticeship  he  began  to  study  for  the  min- 
istry, and  in  due  time  was  ordained  pastor  of  the 
small  Church  at  Wainsgate,  and  remained  there  un- 
til within  a  few  months  of  his  death,  which  occurred 
in  1817. 

In  1772  Fawcett  was  invited  to  London  to 
preach  in  the  pulpit  made  vacant  by  the  death  of 
the  distinguished  Dr.  Gill.  He  made  such  a  strik- 
ing impression  on  the  congregation  that  he  receiyed 
a  call  to  the  pastorate  of  the  Church,  which,  with- 
out much  delay,  he  decided  to  accept.  Fawcett  was 
no  dreamer  when  he  saw  in  the  London  Church  a 
release  from  pinching  poverty  at  Wainsgate,  and  a 
larger  opportunity  for  his  expanding  capabilities. 
And  so  his  farewell  sermon  was  preached  to  his  poor 
people,  and  his  furniture  and  library  were  packed 
ready  for  removal  to  London. 

Neither  Fawcett' s  Life  and  Letters,  nor  his  Mis- 
cellaneous Writings,  nor  any  of  his  published  ser- 
mons, tell  us  how  Blest  be  The  Tie  that  Binds 
caught  its  inspiration.  But  the  story  has  been  cur- 
rent for  at  least  a  century  that  the  people  to  whom 


104  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

his  life  bad  been  a  constant  benediction,  gathered 
about  him,  and  in  anguish  of  soul  besought  him  not 
to  leave  them.  The  agony  of  separation  was  almost 
heart-breaking.  Mrs.  Fawcett,  when  sitting  on  one 
of  the  packing  cases,  was  surrounded  by  women 
and  children  pleading  for  her  to  remain.  Overcome 
by  tears  of  love,  she  exclaimed:  "John,  I  know  not 
how  to  leave  this  people."  And  John  Fawcett  well 
nigh  immortalized  his  name  in  the  answer:  "Neither 
can  I  leave  them;  we  will  stay  here  and  serve  the 
Lord  lovingly  together." 

The  voice  of  human  love  never  won  a  grander 
victory.  Tradition  says  that  within  a  week  after 
this  pathetic  scene  there  came  from  the  heart  of 
Fawcett  a  hymn  to  commemorate  his  sacred  pledge 
to  the  poor  people  at  Wainsgate: 

Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds 

Our   hearts  in   Christian  love: 
The  fellowship  of  kindred  minds 

Is   like   to    that    above. 

Before   our  Father's  throne 

We  pour  our   ardent  prayers; 
Our  fears,  our  hopes,  our  aims,  are  one, — 

Our  comforts  and  our  cares. 

We   share   our   mutual   woes; 

Our  mutual  burdens  bear; 
And  often  for  each  other  flows 

The  sympathizing  tear. 

WTien  we  asunder   part, 

It  gives  us  inward  pain; 
But  we  shall  still  be  joined  in  heart, 

And  hope  to  meet  again. 


.JOHN   FAWCKTT. 


BLEST  BE  THE  TIE  THAT  BINDS.  105 

This  glorious  hope  revives 

Our  courage  by  the  way; 
While  each  in  expectation  lives, 

And  longs  to  see  the  day. 

From  sorrow,   toil,  and  pain 

And  sin  we  shall  be  free; 
And  perfect  love  and  friendship  reign 

Through  all  eternity. 

While  direct  evidence  fails  to  give  the  circumstance 
in  which  the  hymn  was  written,  "internal  evidence 
in  the  hymn  itself/'  gives  assurance  that  the  popu- 
lar account  given  above  is  founded  upon  fact. 

Fawcett' s  life  was  one  of  suffering,  "yet  of  inces- 
sant useful  activity."  Humility  and  self-sacrifice 
were  the  distinguishing  traits  of  his  noble  character. 
His  works  were  many  and  various.  In  1788  he  pub- 
lished a  little  volume  on  Anger,  a  copy  of  which 
was  presented  to  George  III.  The  King  was  so 
much,  pleased  with  it,  says  one  writer,  that  he  offered 
to  confer  upon  Fawcett  any  favor  he  might  desire, 
but  the  royal  munificence  was  gratefully  declined. 
Some  time  afterwards,  however,  the  son  of  one  of  his 
most  intimate  friends  committed  forgery,  and  was 
sentenced  to  be  hanged,  at  that  time  death  being 
the  penalty  for  the  crime.  Fawcett  interceded  on  his 
friend's  behalf,  and  the  King  remembering  his  for- 
mer promise,  granted  a  pardon. 

Dr.  Fawrcett  wrote  many  hymns,  but  only  a  few 
of  them  are  in  common  use.  His  fame  rests  almost 
wholly  upon  one  hymn.  Dr.  Julian  says  the  evi- 
dence is  quite  clear  that  Fawcett  wrote  the  beau- 


106  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

tiful  hymn,  Lord,  Dismiss  us  with  Thy  Blessing, 
which  is  some  times  credited  to  Walter  Sherley. 

The  use  of  Blest  be  The  Tie  that  Binds,  is  very 
great.  When  judged'  from  the  number  of  hymnals 
in  which  it  is  found  in  England  and  America,  and 
the  frequency  with  which  it  is  sung,  it  is  appropri- 
ately grouped  with  the  world's  best  hymns. 

In  the  great  International  Convention  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  held  at  Stock- 
holm, Sweden  in  August,  1888,  hundreds  of  dele- 
gates from  all  civilized  lands  were  in  attendance. 
One  of  the  most  refreshing  scenes  connected  with 
the  Convention  was  when  the  closing  hymn  was 
sung  on  Sunday  evening.  The  great  audience,  speak- 
ing many  tongues,  but  inspired  by  the  same  spirit, 
joined  hands  and  with  wonderful  unction  and  devout- 
ness  sang, 

Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds 
Our  hearts  in  Christian  love. 

It  is  related  that  when  Mr.  Coffin,  a  missionary 
at  Aintab,  in  Armenia,  set  out  in  1860  to  explore 
the  Taurus  Mountains  he  was  to  penetrate  an  en- 
tirely new  and  dangerous  field.  This  fact  was  fully 
realized  by  the  inhabitants  of  Aintab,  and  they  gath- 
ered to  the  number  of  fifteen  hundred  at  the  road- 
sides, and  bade  farewell  to  the  missionary  and  his 
family  in  the  Armenian  words  of  this  hymn. 

It  was  a  red-letter  day  for  the  Presbyterians  of 
the  United  States  when  the  Old  and  New  School 


BLEST  BE  THE  TIE  THAT  BINDS.  107 

divisions  of  the  Church  perfected  a  reunion.  The 
exeni  took  place  at  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  in  No- 
vember, 1869.  The  service  was  of  unusual  inter- 
est and  impressiveness;  and  when  the  reunion  was 
accomplished  and  the  last  address  was  made, 
"amid  flowing  tears  and  with  swelling  hearts," 
the  great  congregation  joined  in  singing  the  precious 
hymn, 

Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds 

Our  hearts  in  Christian  love; 
The  fellowship  of  kindred  minds 

Is  like  to  that  above. 

At  the  World's  Christian  Endeavor  Convention 
in  London,  in  July,  1900,  enthusiasm  reached  the 
highest  pitch  when  Secretary  Baer  spoke  of  "the 
Christian  Anglo-Saxon  alliance  already  formed 
between  young  America  and  young  Britain,  by  the 
members  of  these  more  than  fifty  thousand  socie- 
ties of  Christian  Endeavor."  Just  then  the  follow- 
ing thrilling  incident  occurred:  "The  whole  assem- 
bly, in  sight  of  the  Union  Jack  and  the  Stars  and 
Stripes,  sang  successively,  America,  God  Save  the 
Queen,  and  Blest  be  The  Tie  that  Binds.  Later,  at 
Windsor,  the  delegates  were  given  an  audience  by 
the  Queen,  who  appeared  in  the  quadrangle  oppo- 
site her  oak  dining-room.  She  was  dressed  in  white, 
leaning  on  the  arm  of  her  Indian  attendant  and 
accompanied  by  Princess  Henry  of  Battenberg.  Her 
Majesty,  who  'just  looked  beautiful*  to  the  Endeav- 
orers,  remained  while  the  delegates  sang  once  and 


108  HYMN 8  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

again,  God  Save  the  Queen,  and  Blest  be  The  Tfte 
that  Binds." 

Nothing  less  than  the  supreme  gift  of  John  Faw- 
cett's  daily  life  and  practice,  and  the  binding  of  his 
affection  with  "a  cord  of  love  of  heaven's  own  weav- 
ing/' to  the  poor  people  who  yearned  for  his  com- 
panionship and  sympathy,  could  have  given  the 
Church  the  most  beautiful  and  enduring  of  all  hymns 
in  the  language  expressive  of  Christian  fellowship 
and  mutual  love. 

Dennis,  the  popular  tune  to  which  Dr.  Fawcett's 
hymn  is  almost  universally  sung,  was  composed  by 
Johann  Georg  Nageli,  once  a  music  publisher  in 
Zurich.  Just  when  the  tune  was  composed  cannot  be 
ascertained.  The  composer  was  born  in  Zurich  in 
1768,  and  died  there  in  1836.  Dennis  is  probably 
one  hundred  years  old,  and  is  good  enough  to  last 
several  centuries  more. 


]3i 


XIII. 

Rock  of  Ages. 

T  is  safe  to  say  that  no  other  hymn  has 
swept  the  chords  of  the  human  heart  with 
a  sweeter  or  a  more  hallowed  touch  than 
Rock  of  Ages.  In  spite  of  its  confusion  of  thought 
and  incongruity  of  figures,  with  which  some  critics 
have  found  much  fault,  it  remains  one  of  the  most 
popular  and  helpful  of  all  the  great  hymns  of  the 
Church. 

Augustus  Montague  Toplady  was  born  at  Farn- 
ham,  England,  in  November,  1740.  A  few  months 
after  his  birth,  his  father,  Richard  Toplady,  a  major 
in  the  British  army,  died  at  the  siege  of  Cartagena, 
not  in  Spain,  as  some  suppose,  but  in  the  seaport 
city  of  that  name,  the  capital  of  Colombia,  on  the 
northern  coast  of  South  America.  The  fatherless 
boy  grew  to  manhood  under  the  care  of  his  pious 
mother;  and  when  he  was  sixteen  years  old  she  took 
him  to  Codymain,  Ireland,  on  a  visit  to  friends,  and 
while  there  he  was  attracted  to  a  religious  service 
held  in  a  barn,  and  under  the  sermon  preached  by 
James  Morris,  a  disciple  of  the  Wesleys,  young  Top- 
lady was  converted.  In  later  years  in  speaking  of 
this  supreme  event  of  his  life,  he  said:  "Strange 
that  I  who  had  so  long  sat  under  the  means  of  grace 
in  England  should  be  brought  nigh  unto  God  in  an 


110  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

obscure  part  of  Ireland,  midst  a  handful  of  people 
met  together  in  a  barn,  and  by  the  ministry  of  one 
who  could  hardly  spell  his  own  name.  Surely  it  was 
the  Lord's  doing  and  is  marvelous." 

Soon  after  his  conversion  Toplady  entered 
Trinity  College,  Dublin,  from  which  he  was  gradu- 
ated. It  seems  that  he  joined  the  Wesleys  for  some 
three  years,  when  his  Arminian  prejudices  received 
"an  effectual  shock,"  and  from  that  time  to  the  end 
of  his  life  he  was  an  ardent  Calvinist.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-two  he  was  ordained  deacon  and  licensed 
to  the  curacy  of  Blagdon.  Two  years  later  he  was 
made  priest,  and  curate  of  Farleigh,  and  in  1768  was 
appointed  to  Broad  Hembury. 

Toplady  was  a  man  of  genuine  sincerity  and 
splendid  enthusiasm.  When  he  was  ordained  dea- 
con he  subscribed  to  the  articles  and  liturgy  five 
separate  times  when  once  was  all  that  was  required. 
In  explaining  this  peculiar  act  he  said  he  did  not 
believe  the  articles  and  liturgy  because  he  had  sub- 
scribed to  them,  but  subscribed  to  them  because  he 
believed  them. 

Toplady's  zeal  and  enthusiasm  were  too  intense 
to  be  long  maintained  by  his  limited  physical  power. 
He  was  never  a  strong  man,  and  soon  after  settling 
at  Broad  Hembury  his  health  began  to  fail.  Hoping 
that  a  drier  atmosphere  might  be  helpful,  he  went 
to  London  in  1775,  and  preached  occasionally  in  a 
French  Calvinistic  Church.  But  the  seeds  of  con- 
sumption had  been  too  deeply  sown,  and  his  light 


ROCK    OF    AGES.  Ill 

frame  rapidly  wasted  away.  His  physical  energies 
were  destroyed  "by  the  fiery  ardor  of  soul  that  over- 
taxed them."  His  mental  powers  were  marvelous 
"but  his  body  was  as  brittle  as  glass."  The  devel- 
opment of  a  mind  so  active  and  strong  in  a  body  so 
frail  was  like  the  growth  of  an  oak  in  a  vase. 

During  the  waste  of  that  disease  which  medicine 
does  not  cure,  and  which  makes  the  struggle  be- 
tween soul  and  body  so  gradual  and  solemn  and  the 
results  so  certain,  Toplady  wrote  his  immortal 
hymn.  Probably  no  other  condition  of  mind  and 
body  than  that  through  which  he  passed  in  the  last 
two  years  of  his  life,  could  have  produced  a  hymn- 
prayer  so  full  of  soul-feeling  as  Rock  of  Ages. 

In  the  Yosemite  Valley  is  a  bird  that  builds  its 
nest  high  upon  the  barren  and  sun-beaten  ledges 
of  the  cliffs.  In  the  midst  of  this  desolation  it  keeps 
its  nest  beautiful  and  fresh  with  water  which  it 
carries  on  its  wings  from  the  lakes.  The  bird  rarely 
ever  sings  a  song  in  summer  time,  but  when  winter 
brings  storms  of  snow,  and  fierce  winds  beat  against 
the  white  domes  of  the  mountain  peaks,  the  bird  flies 
through  the  valley  caroling  the  most  charming  of 
all  bird-songs  which  cheers  the  hearts  of  the  lonely 
inhabitants,  and  makes  even  the  cliffs  themselves 
rejoice. 

The  lesson  we  learn  from  the  water-bird  is  that 
the  hymns  which  stir  our  souls  the  most,  and  bring 
us  hope  and  consolation,  have  been  born  in  the  win- 
ter of  human  life.  And  the  lesson  is  also  suggestive 


H2  HYMNS  HiSTO&ICALLt  FAMOUS. 

of  this  thought:  As  the  photographer's  loveliest  pic- 
tures are  made  when  the  light  of  day  is  shut 
out,  so  the  songs  which  are  sweetest  and 
tenderest  and  are  most  deeply  wrought  in  the 
heart  of  the  Church,  have  first  been  sung  on 
the  trembling  lips  of  grief — in  moments  when 
the  noon  of  a  bright  life  has  been  overshadowed 
by  sorrow. 

The  first  trace  we  have  of  the  sentiment  of  Kock 
of  Ages  in  poetic  form,  is  in  The  Gospel  Magazine 
for  October,  1775 — a  London  publication — for  which 
Toplady  wrote  an  article  on  "Life  a  Journey." 
Appealing  to  his  readers  for  a  stronger  faith,  he  said: 
"Yet,  if  you  fall,  be  humbled;  but  do  not  despair. 
Pray  afresh  to  God,  who  is  able  to  raise  you  up  and 
set  you  on  your  feet  again.  Look  to  the  blood  of 
the  covenant,  and  say  to  the  Lord,  from  the  depth 
of  your  heart, 

Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee! 
Foul,  I  to  the  fountain  fly; 
Wash  me,  Savior,  or  I  die. 

In  the  March  number  of  the  same  Magazine — 1776 
— Toplady  showed  by  numerical  calculations,  "that 
the  number  of  man's  sins  was  exceedingly  great,  and 
hence  the  unspeakable  value  of  Christ's  atonement." 
He  clinched  his  argument  with  the  hymn  entitled 
A  Living  and  Dying  Prayer  for  the  Holiest  Believer 
in  the  World: 


AUGUSTUS  M.  TOPLVDY. 


ROCK    OF    AGES.  113 

Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 

Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee! 

Let  the  water  and  the  blood, 

From  Thy  riven   side   which   flowed, 

Be  of  sin  the  double  cure, 

Cleanse  me  from  its  guilt  and  power. 

Xot  the  labors   of  my   hands 
Can  fulfil  Thy  law's  demands: 
Could  my  zeal  no  respite  know, 
Could  my  tears  forever  flow, 
All  for  sin  could  not  atone, 
Thou  must  save,  and  Thou  alone! 

Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring; 
Simply  to  Thy  cross  I  cling; 
Naked,  come  to  Thee  for  dress; 
Helpless,  look  to  Thee  for  grace; 
Foul,  I  to  the  fountain  fly: 
Wash  me,  Savior,  or  I  die! 

While  I  draw  this  fleeting  breath — 
When  my  eye-strings  break  in  death — 
When  I   soar  to  worlds  unknown — 
See  Thee  on  Thy  judgment  throne — 
Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee! 

Some  authorities  believe  that  the  immediate  pur- 
pose of  this  hymn  was  to  protest  against  the  doctrine 
of  entire  sanctification  as  Toplady  understood  it  to 
be  taught  by  the  Wesleys.  But  it  should  be  stated 
in  justice  to  John  Wesley  that  he  was  as  free  from 
the  "heresy"  with  which  he  was  charged  by  Topladv 
as  was  Toplady  himself:  and  no  believer  in  the 
world  could  sing  Rock  of  Ages  with  a  more  reverent 
feeling  than    the  great    preacher    of    righteousness 


114  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

against  whom  the  singer  of  this  imperishable  hymn 
hurled  his  unpardonable  invectives,  in  that  bitter 
theological  controversy  which  illustrated  the  amaz- 
ing imperfections  of  two  consecrated  men,  whose 
lives  and  works  have  an  enduring  hold  on  the  affec- 
tions of  the  Christian  Church. 

The  cherished  hope  of  Toplady  was  not  realized 
in  his  removal  to  London.  "His  mind  was  always 
too  active  for  his  physical  strength;  the  engine  was 
too  powerful  for  the  ship;  the  sword  was  too  sharp 
for  the  scabbard."  Disease  carried  on  its  deadly 
work;  and  "the  mortal  part,  day  by  day  and  grain 
by  grain  wasted  away,"  and  two  years  after  his  price- 
less hymn  was  written  he  entered  the  life  full  of 
glory  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight  years.  His  dying 
prayer  in  verse  will  ever  stand  as  a  memorial  of  the 
impressive  fact  that  when  Calvinists  or  Arminians 
are  inspired  to  write  hymns  of  devotion  it  is  impos- 
sible to  tell  which  is  Calvinist  or  which  Arminian, 
for  the  voices  of  Christians  of  all  names  blend  in 
the  grand  chorus  sung  to  the  Lamb  that  was  slain, 
and  all  breathe  the  same  prayer  that  they  may  hide 
in  the  same  Rock  of  Ages. 

The  text  of  the  hymn  used  in  this  sketch  is  Top- 
lady's  own,  made  a  few  months  after  the  original 
appeared  in  The  Gospel  Magazine.  Perhaps  no  other 
hymn  in  our  language  has  been  subjected  to  more 
attacks  by  hymn-mutilators  than  Eock  of  Ages.  A 
rearrangement  of  the  lines  was  made  by  Thomas 
Cotterill  of  England  in  1815,  the  text  being  reduced 


ROCK    OF    AGES.  115 

to  three  stanzas,  and  this  compacted  form  has  become 
popular  with  many  people  as  it  is  considered  smoother 
and  "less  rugged  in  its  theology"  than  the  original: 

Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 

Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee; 

Let  the  water  and  the  blood, 

From  Thy  wounded  side  which  flowed, 

Be  of  sin  the  double  cure, 

Save  from  wrath  and  make  me  pure. 

Could  my  tears  forever  flow, 
Could  my  zeal  no  languor  know, 
These  for  sin  could  not  atone; 
Thou  must  save,  and  Thou  alone: 
In  my  hand  no  price  I  bring; 
Simply  to  Thy  cross  I  cling. 

While  I  draw  this  fleeting  breath, 
When  my  eyes  shall  close  in  death, 
When  I  rise  to  worlds  unknown, 
And  behold  Thee  on  Thy  throne, 
Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee. 

The  text  of  the  hymn  as  revised  by  Toplady — with 
two  or  three  minor  exceptions — is  found  in  almost 
all  hymnals  of  Great  Britain;  and  it  was  this  text 
that  Gladstone  recognized  when  he  made  his  fa- 
mous Latin,  Greek,  and  Italian  translations.  But 
in  America,  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and 
the  various  bodies  of  Methodism,  have  adopted  the 
Cotterill  arrangement  in  three  stanzas;  while,  as  a 
rule,  other  communions  use  the  four-stanza  text  as 
given  in  this  chapter.  There  is  hardly  any  doubt 
that  a  large  majority  of  English-speaking  Christians 


116  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS, 

wish  that  the  hymn  might  stand  as  it  came  from 
the  heart-experience  of  the  dying  Toplady,  as  the 
so-called  incongruous  metaphors"  are  insignificant 
compared  with  the  spiritual  conditions  they  typify. 

I  think  it  was  in  1898  that  Sir  William  Henry 
Wallis,  a  member  of  the  British  Parliament,  made 
public  an  incident  which,  he  seems  to  believe,  first 
inspired  Eock  of  Ages.  He  associates  the  symbol- 
ism of  the  hymn  with  a  rocky  gorge  in  Blagdon  par- 
ish, Toplady' s  first  curacy.  The  latter  was  walking  by 
Burrington  Coombe,  and  being  over-taken  by  a 
storm,  he  took  refuge  between  two  immense  piers 
of  stone  which  were  a  part  of  a  range  of  hills,  and 
while  waiting  for  the  storm  to  cease  he  wrote  the 
entire  hymn!  But  as  this  account  of  the  origin  of 
Eock  of  Ages  seems  to  have  been  concealed  from 
historians  of  the  hymn  for  more  than  a  century,  one 
can  hardly  be  misled  in  presuming  that  Sir  William's 
gorge  at  Burrington  Coombe  is  not  the  "cleft"  that 
suggested  the  central  idea  of  the  hymn. 

No  physical  condition  like  a  thunder  storm 
could  have  produced  Eock  of  Ages.  A  hymn  of 
6uch  heart-touching  power  could  not  come  of  any 
common-place  event.  It  was  the  still  small  voice 
whispering  holy  peace  to  Toplady's  troubled  mind 
that  inspired  him  to  breathe  in  verse  a  prayer  that 
has  become  a  sacred  treasure  to  the  Churches  of 
Christendom. 

Eock  of  Ages  has  been  wonderfully  helpful  in 
many    supreme    moments.     On  Wednesday,    April 


ROCK    OF   AGES.  117 

nineteenth,  1858,  when  that  brilliant  young  Epis- 
copal clergyman.  Dudley  Atkins  Tyng  of  Philadel- 
phia, lay  dying  of  an  injury  he  received  on  that  day, 
he  said  to  his  distinguished  father;  "Sing,  father, 
can't  you  sing?"  Though  struggling  with  the  stress 
of  pain  and  faint  from  the  loss  of  blood,  he  could 
hardly  wait  for  his  father  to  respond,  and  began 
himself  to  sing, 

Rock  of  Ages,   cleft  for  me. 

But  only  a  few  lines  had  been  sung  when  his  voice 
ceased,  and  one  more  saint  was  numbered  "with  the 
6aints  in  glory  everlasting." 

The  death  of  Major  General  James  E.  B.  Stuart, 
the  noted  cavalryman  of  the  Confederate  army,  was 
one  of  the  most  heroic  and  pathetic  to  be  found 
among  the  brave  men  who  fell  in  the  great  conflict 
between  the  States.  During  the  battle  of  the  Wil- 
derness, Stuart  was  hard  pressed  by  General  Sheri- 
dan's cavalry,  and  on  the  twelfth  of  May,  18642  while 
leading  his  men  in  a  charge  against  the  enemy  at 
Yellow  Tavern,  a  few  miles  north  of  Richmond,  he 
received  a  mortal  wound.  He  was  placed  in  an 
ambulance  and  when  being  taken  off  the  field  he  saw 
the  retreat  of  his  disorganized  command,  and  rais- 
ing his  voice  to  the  highest  pitch  possible,  he  shouted: 
"Go  back,  men,  go  back,  and  do  your  duty  as  I 
have  done  mine,  and  our  country  will  be  safe.  I 
had  rather  die  than  be  whipped."  He  was  taken 
to  a  hospital  in  Richmond  where  he  met  his  old 


118  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

friend,  the  Kev.  Mr.  Peterkin,  rector  of  the  Episco- 
pal Church  of  which  the  General  was  a  devout  mem- 
ber. In  the  course  of  the  day  he  requested  the  rec- 
tor to  sing  the  hymn  which  had  always  given  him  so 
much  comfort, 

Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me. 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee. 

The  General  joined  in  the  hymn  as  best  his 
condition  would  permit,  and  a  few  minutes  later 
he  said  to  Mr.  Peterkin,  "I  feel  as  if  I  am 
going  fast;  I  am  ready;  God's  will  be  done."  And 
the  prayer  of  the  hymn  he  loved  so  much,  was  an- 
swered. 

When  the  fiftieth  year  of  the  reign  of  Victoria 
was  celebrated  in  London  in  June,  1887,  representa- 
tives from  the  principal  governments  of  the  world 
conveyed  messages  of  love  and  good  will  to  the  gra- 
cious Queen.  In  the  embassy  dispatched  by  Queen 
Eanavalona  III.,  of  Madagascar,  was  a  Hova,  a  promi- 
nent and  influential  member  of  the  dominant  tribe 
of  that  name.  He  was  a  venerable,  intelligent,  devout 
man,  and  after  tendering  the  well-wishes  of  his  peo- 
ple to  the  English  authorities,  and  relating  a  few 
interesting  incidents  of  his  long  voyage,  he  suggested 
that  if  there  was  no  objection  he  should  be  glad  to 
sing  for  them.  It  was  hardly  any  wonder  that  his 
select  auditors  expected  a  song  from  the  Hova  which 
would  be  peculiar  to  his  tribe,  "something  heathen- 
ish, national,  or  convivial,"  but  to  the  astonishment 


ROCK    OF    AGES.  119 

of  all  present,  he  began  to  sing  in  a  thin,  but  sweet 
tenor  voice, 

Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee. 

The  Rev.  Duncan  Morrison  of  Owen  Sound,  Canada, 
says:  "There  was  profound,  awkward  silence  which 
was  difficult  to  break,  for  many  were  affected  to 
tears  in  seeing  the  coming  back  of  seed  sown  on  the 
waters  in  missionary  faith  and  zeal.  All  were  taken 
by  surprise,  little  expecting  to  hear  from  the  lips 
of  the  Hova  on  this  grand  occasion  the  sweetest  of 
all  the  songs  of  Zion.  The  venerable  man  took 
delight  in  telling  his  hearers  that  this  one  song  had 
been  very  close  to  his  heart  and  had  enabled  him 
to  while  away  many  a  weary  hour  in  his  pilgrimage 
through  life." 

I  read  an  interesting  incident  a  few  months  ago 
to  the  effect  that  in  March,  1899,  the  city  Council 
of  Chattanooga,  Tennessee,  enacted  an  ordinance 
compelling  all  saloons  to  close  from  ten  o'clock  at 
night  to  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  saloon- 
keepers made  a  strong  effort  to  secure  an  amend- 
ment to  the  ordinance  making  midnight  the  closing 
hour.  A  mass-meeting  of  prominent  women  was 
held  in  a  public  hall  to  protest  against  the  changing 
of  the  law,  and  a  force  of  some  two  hundred  marched 
to  the  chamber  where  the  Council  was  about  to 
meet;  and  while  the  aldermen  were  assembling  the 
good  women  sang  in  a  strong  chorus  two  or  three 


120  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

well-known  hymns,  and  one  writer  in  describing  the 
event  said  the  hymn  that  seemed  to  make  the  greater 
impression  on  the  members  of  the  Council  was  Rock 
of  Ages.     It  saved  the  law. 

It  is  an  old  story,  but  one  that  will  bear  re-telling, 
that  some  years  ago  Mrs.  Lucy  Bainbridge  made  a 
tour  of  the  world  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the 
condition  of  Christian  missions.  Upon  her  return 
home  she  gave  a  pathetic  circumstance  relative  to 
the  use  of  this  hymn.  The  Chinese  women,  being 
anxious  to  "make  merit"  for  themselves,  will  per- 
form the  most  prodigious  labor  to  escape  the  pain- 
ful transmigration  of  the  next  life.  Mrs.  Bainbridge 
says  "they  dread  to  be  born  again  as  dogs  or  cats, 
and  their  highest  hope  is  to  be  re-born  as  men." 
She  met  one  woman  who  had  dug  a  well  twenty-five 
feet  deep  and  fifteen  feet  in  diameter,  and  every  foot 
of  it  was  excavated  with  her  own  weak  hands  before 
she  had  received  any  gospel  teaching  from  the  mis- 
sionaries. She  was  eighty  years  old  when  Mrs.  Bain- 
bridge approached  her  for  the  first  time.  The  old 
woman,  bent  with  age  and  hardship,  stretched  out 
her  crippled  hands  to  greet  her  visitor,  and  began  to 
sing  in  a  strangely  sympathetic  voice, 

Nothing  in   my   hands   I   bring, 
Sdmply  to  Thy  cross  I  cling. 

The  hymn  has  led  many  artists  to  put  on  canvas 
their  conception  of  Rock  of  Ages,  and  two  of  the 
pictures  are  well  known  in  the  "United  States.     In 


ROCK    OF    AQE8.  121 

one  we  see  a  person  clinging  with  both  hands  to  a 
cross  on  a  rock  in  the  stormy  sea.  It  is  a  beautiful 
piece  of  art,  and  forcibly  expresses  the  solemn  sen- 
timent of  Toplady's  prayer.  The  other,  to  use  the 
words  of  Peloubet,  is  the  same  idea  with  the  excep- 
tion that  while  with  one  hand  the  saved  person  is 
clinging  to  the  cross,  with  the  other  she  is  reaching 
out  and  drawing  another  drowning  one  from  the 
raging  waves  to  the  safety  of  the  cross  on  the  rock; 
and  this  would  seem  to  be  the  ideal  picture. 

Some  one  has  said  that  song  is  the  frailest  thread 
of  which  fame  was  ever  spun.  But  history  tells  us 
that  among  the  benefactors  of  mankind  none  are 
surer  of  lasting  fame  than  the  consecrated  men  and 
women  whose  soul-songs  have  become  the  songs  of 
the  ages.  Three  thousand  years  ago  it  was  written, 
"The  prayers  of  David  the  son  of  Jesse  are  ended." 
"But  they  are  not  ended,  and  will  never  end."  We 
do  not  think  of  David  as  a  statesman  or  warrior,  but 
as  the  unchallenged  king  of  Psalmody.  Song  is  the 
thread  of  which  his  fame  and  glory  are  spun.  The 
sweet  strains  of  this  matchless  singer  of  Israel  will 
roll  on  and  on,  and  will  inspire  the  hearts  of  men 
till  the  dawn  of  the  "Eternal  Morning." 

And  thus  it  will  be  with  Toplady.  All  his  other 
writings  are  now  forgotten,  "but  his  name  survives 
secure  of  immortality  in  his  one  hymn,  Rock  of 
Ages." 


XIV. 

How  Firm  a  Foundation. 

LITTLE  over  one  hundred  years  ago  Dr. 
Eippon  of  London,  edited  a  small  volume 
bearing  the  title,  Selection  of  Hymns  from 
the  Best  Authors;  and  in  the  collection  was  one  en- 
titled, Fear  Not.  There  are  two  or  three  arrange- 
ments of  the  hymn,  but  the  one  in  popular  use  in  the 
United  States  is  as  follows: 

How  firm  a  foundation,  ^e  saints  of  the  Lord, 
Is  laid  for  your  faith  in  His  excellent  word! 
What  more  can  He  say,  than  to  you  He  hath  said, 
To  you,  who  for  refuge  to  Jesus  have  fled? 

'Tear  not,  I  am  with  thee,  0  be  not  dismayed, 
For  I  am  thy  God,  I  will  still  give  thee  aid; 
I'll  strengthen  thee,  help  thee,  and  cause  thee  to  stand; 
Upheld   by   My  gracious,    omnipotent   hand. 

"When  through  the  deep  waters  I  call  thee  to  go, 
The  rivers  of  sorrow  shall  not  overflow; 
For  I  will  be  with  thee  thy  trials  to  bless, 
And  sanctify  to  thee  thy  deepest  distress. 

"When  through  fiery  trials  thy  pathway  shall  lie, 
My  grace,  all-sufficient,  shall  be  thy  supply, 
The  flame  shall  not  hurt  thee;  I  only  design 
Thy  dross  to  consume,  and  thy  gold  to  refine. 

"E'en  down  to  old  age  all  my  people  shall  prove 
My  sovereign,  eternal,  unchangeable  love; 
And  when  hoary  hairs  shall  their  temples  adorn, 
Like  lambs  they  shall  still  in  My  bosom  be  borne. 


HOW    FIRM    A    FOUNDATION.  123 

"The  soul  that  on  Jesus  hath  leaned  for  repose, 
I  will  not,  I  will  not  desert  to  his  foes; 
That  soul,  though  all  hell  should  endeavor  to  shake, 
I'll  never,  no  never,  no  never  forsake!" 

Hymnologists  are  at  sea  in  the  effort  to  discover 
the  author  of  this  composition.  When  it  was  pub- 
lished in  1787,  the  only  designation  of  authorship 
was  the  attachment  of  the  letter  K,  but  a  century 
of  investigation  does  not  give  us  the  signification  of 
that  letter.  Thomas  Kirkham,  Caroline  Keene,  Wil- 
liam Kingsbury,  and  George  Keith,  are  said  to  have 
written  the  hymn.  The  latter  was  a  Baptist  lay- 
man, a  London  book  publisher,  and  was  son-in-law 
to  Dr.  Eippon,  and  some  authorities  ascribe  the 
authorship  to  him. 

It  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  many  thousands  of 
ministers  in  this  country  and  Great  Britain  will 
indorse  the  opinion  of  the  Rev.  William  Hayes  Ward, 
editor  of  The  Independent,  that  as  an  expression  of 
Christian  loyalty  and  faith,  How  Firm  a  Foundation 
can  hardly  fall  behind  such  notable  hymns  as,  I 
Love  thy  Kingdom,  Lord;  and,  Oh,  Could  I  Speak 
the  Matchless  Worth. 

The  hymn  stands  with  many  others  which  have 
incidents  of  tender  or  inspiring  character  associated 
with  their  use.  The  Rev.  James  Gallaher,  a  West- 
ern pioneer  preacher,  paid  a  visit  to  former  Presi- 
dent Jackson  at  the  Hermitage,  near  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, in  1843,  two  years  before  the  death  of  the 
hero  of  New  Orleans.  It  was  after  retiring  from  the 
Presidency  that  the  General  became  a  devout  com- 


124  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

municant  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  was  in 
sweet  old  age  when  Mr.  Gallaher  met  him,  and  the 
following  interesting  incident  is  associated  with  that 
visit: 

During  the  conversation  General  Jackson  turned 
and  said:  "There  is  a  beautiful  hymn  on  the  subject 
of  the  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises  of 
God  to  His  people.  It  was  a  favorite  hymn  with 
my  dear  wife  till  the  day  of  her  death.  It  begins 
thus:  'How  Firm  a  Foundation,  ye  Saints  of  the 
Lord/  I  wish  you  would  sing  it  now."  So 
the  little  company  sang  the  entire  seven  stanzas; 
and  the  heart  of  the  old  hero  was  warmed, 
and  his  faith  and  hope  were  strengthened,  by  the 
rich  promises  contained  in  the  hymn  his  wife  so  much 
loved. 

In  Frances  E.  Willard's  Glimpses  of  Fifty  Years, 
she  makes  this  reference  to  the  hymn:  "Mother  says 
that  at  family  prayers  in  her  home  they  were  wont 
to  sing  together,  How  Firm  a  Foundation;  and  her 
parents  used  to  say  it  would  never  wear  out,  because 
it  was  so  full  of  Scripture.  When  mother  came  back 
to  us  after  being  confined  to  her  room  six  weeks, 
we  sang  that  hymn  for  her,  and  she  broke  in  at  the 
verse  about  ^hoary  hairs'  and  said:  'How  I  enjoyed 
that  for  my  old  grandmother  who  lived  to  be  ninety- 
seven,  and  I  enjoyed  it  for  my  dear  father  who  was 
eighty-six  when  he  passed  away;  and  now  my  daugh- 
ter enjoys  it  for  me,  who  am  eighty-four,  and  per- 
haps she  will  live  on  to  be  as  old  as  I,  when  I  feel 


HOW    FIRM    A    FOUNDATION.  125 

sure  she  will  have  friends  who  will  enjoy  it  just  as 
tenderly  for  her/  " 

Some  years  since,  a  small  company  met  for  wor- 
ship in  a  village  located  in  central  Kansas — a  region 
that  had  been  almost  desolated  by  the  failure  of  the 
crops.  The  people  having  lost  heart  because  of 
blighted  fields,  the  pastor  related  a  touching  story 
in  the  life  of  Miss  Fidelia  Fisk  of  Shelbourne,  Massa- 
chusetts, who  had  been  a  missionary  in  Persia  for 
fifteen  years,  and  died  in  1864.  He  said:  "When 
she  was  in  the  Nestorian  mission,  in  feeble  health 
and  much  discouraged,  she  sat  on  her  mat  on  the 
chapel  floor  one  warm,  uncomfortable  Sunday  after- 
noon, without  support  for  her  weary  head  or  ach- 
ing back.  The  woes  of  life  and  her  lonely  position 
pressed  upon  her  like  a  raging  flood,  and  she  was 
ready  to  sink  beneath  the  waves,  when  a  woman 
came  and  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  the  mat 
at  her  back  and  whispered  to  her,  'Lean  on  me/ 
Miss  Fisk  scarcely  heeded  the  request,  and  still 
longed  for  support  to  help  her  bear  the  discomfort 
she  endured  till  the  close  of  worship.  Presently 
the  words  were  repeated,  'Lean  on  me/  Then  she 
divided  the  weight  with  the  gentle  pleader,  but  it 
did  not  satisfy.  In  earnest,  almost  reproachful 
tones,  the  voice  again  urged,  'If  you  love  me,  lean 
hard/  " 

When  the  minister  concluded  his  pathetic  refer- 
ence to  Miss  Fisk's  sufferings,  he  sat  down  to  let 
the  people  make  the  application.     Presently  some 


126  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

one  whose  heart  was  tuned  for  the  occasion,  began 
in  a  quavering,  but  an  earnest  tone,  to  sing, 

The  soul  that  on  Jesus  hath  leaned  for  repose 
I  will  not,  I  will  not  'desert  to  its  foes; 
That  soul,  though  all  hell  should  endeavor  to  shake, 
I'll  never,  no  never,  no  never  forsake. 

One  after  another  took  up  the  song  till  the  walls 
of  the  little  room  rang  with  the  melody.  "And  then 
with  tear-dimmed  eyes  they  clasped  each  other's 
hands,  and  separated  to  their  homes,  feeling  sure 
that  the  promises  which  beautify  and  strengthen  the 
hymn,  would  carry  them  through." 

The  tune  to  which  this  noble  lyric  is  set  is  the 
work  of  Marcus  Antonio  Portugal,  a  dramatic  com- 
poser. During  the  French  invasion  of  Portugal 
which  began  in  1807,  he  fled  with  the  royal  family 
to  Brazil  in  1811,  and  was  made  musical  general  to 
the  Court  at  Eio  de  Janeiro.  In  one  of  his  composi- 
tions was  a  Midnight  Mass,  from  which  the  tune,  now 
universally  sung  to  this  hymn,  was  taken.  "The 
Mass  used  to  be  sung  to  the  words  of  a  Christmas 
carol,  in  the  procession  of  priests  and  nuns  on  their 
way  from  their  houses  to  the  church  on  Christmas 
morning.  Thus,  Eomanism  and  Protestantism, 
Portugal  and  England,  have  been  laid  under  tribute 
to  produce  this  grand  old  hymn." 


XV. 

Coronation. 

PJVERY  great  song  has  its  reason  for  being. 
Unless  it  is  needed  it  does  not  come.  It 
never  appears  by  chance.  For  every  try- 
ing crisis  in  the  world's  history,  for  every  pressing 
need  of  the  Church,  for  every  soul-experience  of 
man,  a  song  or  hymn  has  been  born. 

During  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  flood-tide  of  sacred  song  reached  a  height  that 
is  not  surpassed  by  any  other  period  in  the  history 
of  the  English-speaking  Church.  Almost  every  con- 
ceivable theme  found  expression  in  hymns.  Several 
thousands  were  written  in  the  time  of  that 
historic  religious  movement;  but  until  1779  there 
was  no  inspiriting  hymn  in  the  language  invoking 
angels  and  patriarchs,  martyrs  and  prophets,  Jews 
and  Gentiles,  saints  and  sinners,  and  every  kindred 
and  tribe  of  all  nations,  to  join  in  the  solemn  yet 
triumphant  act,  of  crowning  Jesus  Lord  of  all.  But 
from  the  beginning  of  time,  it  is  said,  God  has  raised 
up  a  man  for  every  great  occasion. 

Edward  Perronet  is  a  name  that  is  almost  lost 
to  the  lovers  of  the  Church  hymnal.  He  wrote  one 
of  the  ten  hymns  which  stand  at  the  head  of  all 
hymns  in  the  English  language;  but  while  Christen- 
dom admires  the  song,  the  singer  is  wellnigh  forgot- 


128  HYMNS  BISTO&ICALLI  FAMOUS. 

ten.  He  was  a  disciple  of  the  Wesleys  for  several 
years,  but  his  theological  opinions  were  so  greatly 
at  variance  with  them  that  he  became  a  preacher  in 
the  Countess  of  Hur^tingdon's  denomination.  But 
Perronet  was  an  extreme  Nonconformist,  and  was 
ever  restless,  and  eventually  he  accepted  the  pas- 
torate of  a  small  congregation  at  Canterbury,  fifty- 
three  miles  nearly  southeast  from  London.  He  had 
"such  exalted  and  adoring  views  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  so  completely  enthroned  Him  in  his  thoughts 
and  affections,"  that  in  1779,  while  ministering  to 
that  little  company  of  modest  Dissenters,  the  lan- 
guage of  his  soul  was  uttered  in  this  regal  hymn,  its 
original  form  being  as  follows: 

All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus*  name! 

Let  angels  prostrate  fall; 
Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem, 

To  crown  Him  Lord  of  all! 

Let  high-born  seraphs  tune  the  lyre, 

And  as  they  tune  it,  fall 
Before  His  face  who  tunes  their  choir, 

And  crown  Him  Lord  of  all! 

Crown  Him,  ye  morning  stars  of  light, 

Who  fixed  this  floating  ball; 
Now   hail  the  strength  of  Israel's  might, 

And  crown  Him  Lord  of  all! 

Crown  Him,  ye  martyrs  of  your  God, 

Who  from  His  altar  call: 
Extol  the  stem  of  Jesse's  rod, 

And  crown  Him  Lord  of  all! 


CORONATION.  129 

Ye  seed  of  Israel's  chosen  race, 

Ye  ransom'd  of  the  fall, 
Hail  Him  who  saves  you  by  His  grace, 

And  crown  Him  Lord  of  all! 

Hail  Him,  ye  heirs  of  David's  line, 

Whom   David   Lord   did   call, 
The  God  incarnate,  Man  divine, 

And  crown  Him  Lord   of  all! 

Sinners,  whose  love  can  ne'er  forget 

The  wormwood  and  the  gall, 
Go,  spread  your  trophies  at  His  feet, 

And  crown  Him  Lord  of  all! 

Let  every  tribe  and  every  tongue 

That  bound  creation's  call. 
Now  shout  in  universal  song, 

The  crowned  Lord  of  all. 

This  is  the  monarch  of  all  Coronation  Songs.  It 
has  undergone  several  changes  in  its  history;  the 
last  stanza  now  in  popular  use — 0  that  with  yonder 
sacred  throngs  being  written  by  Dr.  Eippon  of  Lon- 
don, in  1787. 

Perronet  belongs  to  that  class  of  poets,  which 
has  become  quite  large,  whose  fame  is  established 
upon  one  song  only.  He  wrote  a  number  of  hymns 
but  was  inspired  only  once  to  put  his  heart-sentiment 
into  verse,  and  Coronation  is  the  single  hymn  that 
found  its  way  to  a  Church  hymnal. 

The  music  to  which  the  hymn  was  first  sung  bv 
Perronet's  small  congregation  was  Miles  Lane,  a  tune 
of  splendid  strains,  composed  by  William  Shrubsole 
of  London,  in  1780.  In  the  United  States,  and  at 
American  missions  in  foreign  lands,  Coronation — no 
less  majestic  than  Miles  Lane — is  always  associated 


130  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

with  the  hymn.  It  was  composed  in  1792,  the  year 
of  Perronet's  death,  by  Oliver  Holden,  who  lived  at 
Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  and  for  many  years  was 
a  house-carpenfer.  While  still  engaged  at  his  trade 
he  published  his  first  book  of  sacred  music — The 
American  Harmony — in  1793,  and  in  the  collection 
was  his  masterpiece — Coronation.  In  Boston,  among 
some  precious  relics  of  olden  times  is  a  quaint  organ, 
made  in  London  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago.  It  was  owned  by  Holden,  and  that  little  in- 
strument preceded  any  human  voice  in  singing  the 
animating  strains  of  Coronation.  Commenting  upon 
the  hymn  and  its  music,  Mr.  Hezekiah  Butterworth 
says:  "Perronet's  words  are  wonderfully  exalting, 
but  they  would  have  been  almost  wingless  without 
the  tune,  which  has  been  as  a  flame  of  fire  to  un- 
told millions  of  aspiring  souls  in  all  lands  for  many 
years." 

Mr.  Holden  was  born  at  Shirley,  Massachu- 
setts, in  1765,  and  died  at  Charlestown  in  1844.  It 
will  interest  the  reader  to  learn  that  in  1895, 
friends  of  the  Unitarian  denomination  at  Shirley, 
wishing  "to  hold  in  ever  green  memory"  the  name 
of  the  composer  of  Coronation,  placed  a  tablet  in 
their  Church  with  his  name  and  birth,  and  a  quo- 
tation from  the  hymn  inscribed  upon  it.  Holden 
was  a  Baptist,  but  the  Unitarian  spirit  to  honor 
one  who  gave  the  Christian  Church  such  a  trium- 
phant tune  as  Coronation,  over-leaped  all  sectarian 
differences. 


CORONATION.  131 

A  story  that  illustrates  the  influence  of  Corona- 
tion was  told  several  years  since  by  Mr.  William  Rey- 
nolds of  Peoria,  Illinois,  a  gentleman  of  wide  repu- 
tation as  a  successful  Sunday  School  organizer.  His 
friend,  the  Rev.  E.  P.  Scott,  was  a  missionary  in 
India  for  many  years,  and  once  attempted  to  carry 
the  gospel  to  one  of  the  dangerous  inland  tribes 
with  whose  language  he  was  somewhat  familiar. 
When  he  reached  the  camp  of  the  savages  he  was 
met  by  a  dozen  spears,  and  instant  death  seemed 
inevitable.  While  they  paused  for  a  moment  he  drew 
out  his  violin  with  which  he  always  accompanied  his 
songs,  and  closing  his  eyes  he  began  to  play  Corona- 
tion and  sing  a  translation  of  the  hymn  which  the 
tribe  could  understand.  "When  he  had  finished  he 
opened  his  eyes  to  witness,  as  he  thought,  his  own 
death  at  the  point  of  their  spears;  but  to  his  joy 
he  found  that  the  spears  had  fallen  and  the  murder- 
ers were  all  in  tears.  This  song  saved  him  from 
death,  and  opened  an  effectual  door  for  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  to  the  tribe." 

The  use  of  Coronation  is  universal.  It  is  found 
in  all  evangelical  hymn-books  and  has  been  trans- 
lated into  all  modern  languages.  It  has  been  the 
song  of  praise  on  countless  occasions  when  the  spirit 
moved  great  assemblages  to  express  gratitude  and 
adoration  in  jubilant  song.  In  the  largeness  of  its 
use  in  connection  with  important  events,  and  chiefly 
at  notable  union  gatherings  of  religious  bodies,  it  is 
surpassed  only  by  Bishop  Ken's  immortal  Doxology. 


132  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

The  late  Eev.  Edwin  Paxton  Hood  of  London 
once  visited  an  old  German  church  to  hear  the  organ 
respond  to  the  genius  that  played  upon  it.  He  tells 
how  the  instrument'  soon  began  its  wonderful 
work  of  sound.  "How  those  strange  sounds  throbbed 
against  the  pillars  and  shook  them,  and  rumbled 
along  beneath  the  feet,  and  traveled  thrillingly  over- 
head among  the  arches!  The  reader  knows  what 
an  organ  can  do;  how  it  can  sigh,  and  shout,  and 
storm  and  rage;  how  it  can  madden  and  how  it  can 
soothe.  Then  it  began  to  utter  some  marvelous  de- 
lirium of  music,  and  impose  on  the  imagination  the 
scenery  of  a  wild  tempest,  a  storm  of  nature  among 
the  valleys  and  mountains.  The  blasts  of  the  tem- 
pest and  the  bolts  of  the  thunder  were  like  giants 
striving  together  in  night  and  solitude.  And  in  all 
of  it  there  seemed  to  be  a  human  voice.  Amid  the 
hurricane  on  the  organ  it  rose  so  clear,  so  calm, 
so  ineffably  restful  and  light,  so  high  over  the 
surges  and  the  wailings  of  the  rain,  the  thunder, 
and  the  wind. 

"What  was  it?  It  was  the  vox  humana  stop, 
that  wondrous  simulation,  the  human  voice  stop, 
the  mightiest  marvel  of  all  the  artifices  of  music. 
The  storm  continued,  but  still  it  sang  on,  and  rose 
on  the  wings  of  light  and  sound  over  all  the  hurri- 
canes that  hurried  from  the  pipes  and  keys." 

Thus  it  is  ever  with  God's  inspired  writers  of 
songs  for  the  Sanctuary.  It  is  the  divine  human 
voice  that  makes  all  the  great  heart-hymns.    A  mere 


CORONATION.  133 

poetic  impulse  cannot  produce  them.  Only  when 
that  divine  voice  lifts  men  and  women  above  the 
common  concerns  of  life,  are  their  hearts  kindled 
by  the  lyric  fire  whence  come  the  hymns  that  act 
upon  every  holy  feeling  of  our  nature,  strengthen- 
ing and  elevating  it. 

When  Haydn  was  composing  the  oratorio  of  the 
Creation  he  was  seen  kneeling  by  the  organ  praying 
for  inspiration.  Among  the  grand  choruses  in  the 
realm  of  music  are  The  Heavens  are  Telling,  and  Let 
there  be  Light;  and  when  he  heard  them  for  the  last 
time  as  music  is  rarely  rendered  on  this  earth,  he 
exclaimed  in  tears:  "Not  mine,  not  mine;  it  came 
from  above."  Haydn  was  right.  One  voice  has  made 
the  grandest  of  all  music.  The  Voice  that  inspired 
Haydn  to  compose  The  Creation,  and  Handel  The 
Hallelujah  Chorus,  tuned  Perronet's  heart  to  sing 
All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name. 


XVI. 

From  Greenland's  Icy  Mountains. 

N  American  writer  of  unknown  name 
once  said:  "It  does  not  necessarily  take  a 
life-time  to  accomplish  immortality.  A 
brave  act  done  in  a  moment,  a  courageous  word 
spoken  at  the  fitting  time,  a  few  lines  which  can  be 
written  on  a  sheet  of  note-paper,  may  give  one  a  death- 
less name.  Such  was  the  case  with  Keginald  Heber, 
known  far  and  wide  wherever  the  Christian  religion 
has  penetrated,  by  his  unequaled  missionary  hymn, 
From  Greenland's  icy  Mountains." 

Although  the  origin  of  Bishop  Heber's  hymn  may 
be  as  familiar  as  household  words,  its  circumstan- 
tial story  will  bear  repeating.  A  royal  letter  was 
issued  in  1819  requesting  that  collections  should  be 
made  in  all  Churches  of  England  on  behalf  of  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  For- 
eign Parts.  Eeginald  Heber,  then  Rector  of  Hod- 
net,  was  visiting  his  father-in-law,  Dr.  Shipley,  Dean 
of  St.  Asaph  and  Rector  of  Wrexham.  Half  a  dozen 
friends  were  gathered  in  the  little  Rectory  parlor, 
on  Saturday  afternoon,  when  Dr.  Shipley  turned  to 
Heber,  knowing  the  ease  with  which  he  composed, 
and  requested  him  to  write  some  missionary  lines, 
to  be  sung  in  the  church  the  next  morning,  as  he 
was  going  to  preach    on  the  subject   of    Missions. 


FROM   GREENLAND'S  ICY  MOUNTAINS.        135 

Retiring  to  a  corner  of  the  room,  in  a  few  minutes' 
time  he  had  written  the  first  three  verses  of  the 
hymn.  He  read  them  to  the  Dean  and  his  friends. 
"There,  there,  that  will  do  very  well,"  said  Dr. 
Shipley.  "No,  the  sense  is  not  yet  complete," 
replied  Heber.  He  again  retired  for  a  few  moments, 
and  then  returned  with  the  noble  bugle  blast  of  the 
fourth  stanza,  "Waft,  waft  ye  winds  His  story." 
"The  winds  have  wafted  Heber's  song,  and  the  roll- 
ing waters  have  borne  it  forth,  till  what  was  first 
sung  in  Wrexham  Church,  on  Whitsunday  morning, 
in  1819,  now  rises  from  human  hearts  and  lips  over 
three-quarters  of  the  globe:" 

From  Greenland's  icy  mountains, 

From  India's  coral  strand, 
Where  Afric's  sunny  fountains 

Roll  down  their  golden  sand, 
From  many  an  ancient  river, 

From  many  a  palmy  plain, 
They  call   us  to   deliver 

Their  land  from  error's  chain. 

What  though  the  spicy  breezes 

Blow  soft  o'er  Ceylon's  isle; 
Though  every  prospect  pleases, 

And  only  man  is  vile; 
In  vain,  with  lavish  kindness, 

The  gifts  of  God  are  strown; 
The  heathen,  in  his  blindness, 

Bows  down  to  wood  and  stone. 

Can  we,  whose  souls  are  lighted 

With  wisdom  from  on  high, — 
Can  we  to  men  benighted, 

The  lamp  of  life  deny? 


136  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Salvation!  O  salvation! 

The  joyful  sound  (proclaim, 
Till  each  remotest  nation 

Has  learned  Messiah's  name. 

Waft,  waft,  ye  winds,  His  story; 

And  you,  ye  waters,  roll, 
Till,  like  a  sea  of  glory, 

It  spreads  from  pole  to  pole; 
Till,  o'er  our  ransomed  nature, 

The  Lamb  for  sinners  slain, 
Redeemer,  King,  Creator, 

In  bliss  return  to  reign. 

The  tune  to  which  this  hymn  is  sung — at  least 
in  all  American  Churches — has  been  a  powerful  aid 
to  the  cause  of  foreign  missions,  and  its  story  is  not 
less  interesting  than  that  of  the  hymn.  In  1823,  a 
lady  living  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  obtained  a  copy 
of  the  words.  She  had  a  longing  desire  to  have  them 
sung,  but  could  find  no  music  to  which  they  could  be 
set.  Finally  it  came  to  her  that  a  young  bank 
clerk  in  the  city  had  a  local  reputation  as  a  composer 
of  Church  music.  She  sent  the  words  to  him  with 
a  note  in  which  she  expressed  the  hope  that  he 
might  be  able  to  adapt  them  to  an  appropriate  tune. 
In  the  course  of  half  an  hour,  the  story  says,  the 
words  were  returned  to  the  lady  with  the  tune  famil- 
iarly known  as  Missionary  Hymn,  which  has  been 
around  the  globe  many  times,  and  in  America  and 
at  American  missions  throughout  the  world,  will 
never  be  parted  from  the  magnificent  lines  of  Bishop 
Heber.  The  young  bank  clerk  was  Lowell  Mason, 
then  thirty-one  years  old,  who  became  the  greatest 


REGINALD    1IEBER. 


FROM   GREENLAND'S  ICY  MOUNTAINS.        137 

hymn-time    composer    this    country    has    ever  pro- 
duced. 

In  interpreting  the  first  two  lines  of  the  second 
stanza,  Heber  wrote  the  following  when  on  a  voyage 
to  India  in  1823:  "Though  we  were  now  too  far  off 
Ceylon  to  catch  the  odors  of  the  land,  yet  it  is,  we 
are  assured,  perfectly  true  that  such  odors  are  per- 
ceptible to  a  very  considerable  distance.  In  the 
Straits  of  Malacca  a  smell  like  that  of  a  hawthorn 
hedge  is  commonly  experienced;  and  from  Ceylon, 
at  thirty  or  forty  miles,  under  certain  circumstances, 
a  yet  more  agreeable  scent  is  inhaled." 

The  universality  of  this  hymn  is  finely  illustrated 
in  an  incident  associated  with  the  great  revival  in 
Philadelphia  in  1858.  The  North  Carolina,  a  frig- 
ate in  the  United  States  Navy,  was  at  the  navy  yard 
in  the  spring  of  that  year.  Among  the  sailors  on 
board  were  several  who  had  just  passed  through 
striking  spiritual  experiences,  and  when  an  account 
had  been  taken  of  the  different  nationalities  on  the 
frigate,  it  was  found  that  there  wrere  representatives 
from  ten  countries;  and  a  sailor  having  said  that  he 
was  born  in  Greenland,  the  hymn,  From  Greenland's 
icy  Mountains,  was  started  spontaneously,  and  all 
joined  with  full  hearts  and  strong  voices  in  singing 
it  to  the  end. 

This  is  the  most  animating  and  thoroughly  mis- 
sionary hymn  ever  written.  In  English-speaking 
Protestant  Churches,  imbued  with  a  lively  missionary 
spirit,  its  wide  popularity  and  comprehensive  use  do 


138  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

not  diminish  in  the  least.  Some  writers  venture  to 
say  that  the  hymn  has  done  as  much  to  spread  Chris- 
tianity in  heathen  countries  as  all  the  sermons  ever 
preached  on  the  subject  of  missions.  This  may  be 
an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  influence  of  the  hymn; 
but  it  is  not  unlikely  that  it  has  done  more  than  any 
other  hymn  of  its  class  to  inspire  and  strengthen 
the  Churches  in  their  efforts  to  propagate  the  Chris- 
tian religion  among  the  heathens  of  many  lands. 

Bishop  Heber  was  born  in  1783  in  Cheshire, 
England.  When  only  twenty  years  old  he  took  the 
University  prize  by  his  poem,  Palestine,  which  was 
considered  the  best  Oxford  poem  of  the  century.  He 
read  it  in  Convocation  Hall  at  the  Annual  Com- 
mencement, and  was  received  with  an  outburst  of 
applause  "as  probably  never  before  greeted  an  Ox- 
ford student/*  In  describing  the  building  of  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem,  he  used  these  striking  lines 
which  are  so  often  quoted: 

No  hammer  fell,  no  ponderous  axes  rung, 
Like  some  tall  palm  the  mystic  fabric  sprung, 
Majestic  silence! 

After  the  reading  of  the  poem,  young  Heber's  par- 
ents, elated  over  his  unparalleled  success,  began  to 
look  for  him  that  they  might  shower  upon  him  their 
infinite  congratulations.  But  he  could  not  be  found. 
It  was  only  after  a  long  search  that  he  was  discovered 
in  his  sleeping-room  on  his  knees,  "breathing  out  his 
soul  in  gratitude  and  prayer." 

Heber  was  Eector  of  Hodnet  sixteen  years,  where, 


FROM  GREENLAND'S  ICY  MOUNTAINS.        139 

it  is  supposed,  he  wrote  all  his  hymns.  In  1823  he 
was  made  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  and  early  one  morn- 
ing in  April,  1826,  after  confirming  a  large  class  of 
natives,  he  took  a  cold  bath  which  resulted  in  instant 
death. 

Bishop  Heber's  lines  beginning,  Holy,  Holy, 
Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty,  compose  the  most 
majestic  anthem  on  the  Trinity  to  be  found  in  the 
hymnology  of  any  Church.  A  loftier  expression  of 
devout  adoration  has  never  been  produced  in  verse. 
The  personal  history  of  the  hymn  will  never  be 
known.  It  was  found  among  his  posthumous  hymns, 
and  was  first  published  in  1827.  Tennyson  pro- 
nounced it  the  finest  hymn  ever  written  in  any  lan- 
guage. 

The  hymn  has  been  rendered  all  the  more  popular 
by  being  inseparably  associated  with  Nicea,  the 
splendid  composition  of  Dr.  John  Bacchus  Dykes. 
The  tune  was  happily  named,  and  has  such  a  stately 
dignity  as  to  give  the  hymn  "a  matchless  glory  all 
over  the  world."  The  music  acquired  its  name  from 
Nicea,  in  Asia  Minor,  where  the  first  Christian  Ecu- 
menical Council  was  held  in  A.  D.,  325.  It  was  at 
this  Council  that  the  Eternal  Sonship  of  Christ,  and 
His  equality  with  the  Father,  were  established  as 
the  creed  of  the  Church.  Dr.  Dykes  reached  the 
zenith  of  his  musical  genius  in  composing  Nicea  for 
the  greatest  hymn  on  the  Trinity  that  man  has  ever 
been  inspired  to  write. 

Bishop  Heber  wrote  fifty-seven  hymns,  and  com- 


140  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

petent  authority  says  that  every  one  of  them  is  in 
common  use.  That  every  hymn  a  writer  has  pro- 
duced should  find  a  place  in  the  service  of  the 
Church,  is  an  honor  that  is  paid  to  no  other  hymnist 
in  the  history  of  sacred  song. 


$1 


XVII. 
Sun  of  riy  Soul,  Thou  Savior  Dear. 

X  the  world  of  hymns  John  Keble  is  a  great 


name.  Considered  from  the  viewpoint  of 
numbers,  he  does  not  fill  a  large  place  in  the 
hymnals  of  American  Churches;  but  taking  quality 
into  account  he  has  greatly  enriched  our  Church  hym- 
nody.  He  is  the  author  of  one  hymn  that  carries  his 
name  into  all  English-speaking  lands.  By  its  magic 
charm  and  fine  poetic  merit  it  has  wrought  itself 
imperishably  into  the  affections  of  Christian  worship- 
ers in  the  United  States;  and  in  this  chapter  I  will 
make  special  note  of  the  holy  influence  of  the  hymn. 

Keble  was  born  in  1792,  at  Fairford,  Glouces- 
tershire, England.  He  wTas  educated  at  Oxford 
where  his  University  career  was  exceptionally  bril- 
liant. In  1816  he  was  ordained  priest,  and  in  1831 
was  elected  professor  of  Poetry  in  Oxford  University. 
After  his  father  died  he  accepted  the  vicarage  of 
Hursley,  Hampshire,  and  here  he  remained  from 
1835  to  the  year  of  his  death— 1866. 

Some  years  before  going  to  Hursley  Keble  began 
work  on  The  Christian  Year,  the  most  successful 
volume  of  sacred  poems  ever  written  in  any  language. 
His  purpose  was  to  make  it  a  poetical  companion  to 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  He  was  a  shy,  unam- 
bitious man;  and  yet  he  was  the  prime  factor  in  the 


142  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

great  religious  movement  of  his  time.  His  innate 
modesty  led  him  to  express  the  sincere  wish  that  the 
book  might  not  be  published  until  after  his  death; 
but  in  deference  to  the  desire  of  his  intimate  friends 
he  consented,  though  with  much  diffidence,  to  its 
immediate  publication  if  done  anonymously,  and  in 
1827  the  first  edition  was  issued. 

Keble  built  better  than  he  knew.  He  was  the 
only  man,  so  it  is  said,  that  depreciated  the  book, 
and  except  when  engaged  on  the  work  of  revision, 
he  seldom  read  it.  But  he  lived  to  see  The  Christian 
Year  pass  through  ninety-six  editions;  and  up  to  1890 
nearly  half  a  million  copies  had  been  sold. 

Critics  tell  us  that  there  are  some  weak  poems 
in  the  book,  but  that  does  not  excite  wonder.  No 
poet  ever  lived  that  was  at  his  best  all  the  time. 
A  greater  number  of  Keble's  verses  have  a  genuine 
ring  of  inspiration,  and  from  such  have  his  hymns 
been  taken.  Wherever  the  English  religion  spreads, 
the  little  volume  of  Keble's  has  been  found.  On  a 
Sunday  in  the  desert  of  Mount  Sinai,  where  books 
would  naturally  be  the  fewest,  four  travelers  met, 
and  three  of  them  had  The  Christian  Year.  During 
the  Crimean  war  the  English  hospitals  received  a 
whole  cargo  of  the  book,  the  gift  of  the  daughter  of 
the  celebrated  Dr.  Chalmers. 

In  The  Christian  Year  is  a  lovely  poem  of  four- 
teen stanzas,  for  evening  voices,  that  begins  with 
these  lines, 


SUN  OF  MY  SOUL  THOU  SAVIOR  DEAR.  143 

'Tifl  gone,  that  bright  and  orbed  blaze, 
Fast  fading  from  our  wistful  gaze. 

It  was  from  this  poem  that  Keble's  most  famous 
hymn  was  taken: 

Sun  of  my  soul,  Thou  Savior  dear, 
It  is  not  night  if  Thou  be  near; 
Oh,  may  no  earth-born  cloud  arise 
To  hide  Thee  from  Thy  servant's  eyes! 

When  the  soft  dews  of  kindly  sleep 
My  wearied  eyelids  gently  steep, 
Be  my  last  thought  how  sweet  to  rest 
For  ever  on  my  Savior's  breast. 

Abide  with  me  from  morn  till  eve, 
For  without  Thee  I  cannot  live; 
Abide   with   me   when   night   is  nigh, 
For  without  Thee  I  dare  not  die. 

If  some  poor  wandering  chUd  of  Thine 
Have  spurned  to-day  the  Voice  Divine, 
Now,  Lord,  the  gracious  work  begin, 
Let  him  no  more  lie  down  in  sin. 

Watch  by  the  sick,  enrich  the  poor 
With  blessings  from  Thy  boundless  store; 
Be  every  mourner's  sleep  to-night, 
Like  infant's  slumbers,  pure  and  light. 

Come  near  and  bless  us  when  we  wake, 
Ere  through  the  world  our  way  we  take. 
Till  in  the  ocean  of  Thy  love 
We  lose  ourselves  in  Heaven  above. 

There  cannot  be  found  in  English  or  American 
hymnody  a  hymn  that  glows  with  more  spiritual 
beauty  than  this.     Its  use  comes  as  near  being  uni- 


144  HYMNS  MISTORIGALLY  FAMOUS. 

versal  as  that  of  any  other  hymn  that  can  be  named. 
The  spirit  of  the  lines  comes  home  to  so  many  hearts 
that  they  are  found  in  almost  every  hymn-book  in 
this  country  and  Great  Britain.  The  popular  tune 
Hursley,  named  after  Keble's  first  vicarage,  was 
arranged  by  William  Henry  Monk  from  a  German- 
Swiss  melody  by  Peter  Kitter,  at  one  time  chapel 
master  to  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden,  and  to  this 
happy  setting  the  hymn  is  invariably  sung. 

A  few  years  ago  the  Eev.  Duncan  Morrison — 
mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter — received  a  letter 
from  a  friend  engaged  in  mission  work  among  the 
Cree  Indians  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  in  which 
he  said  that  Keble's  hymn  had  been  rendered  into 
their  vernacular;  and  that  it  proved  extremely  popu- 
lar, and  was  greatly  helpful  in  missionary  effort.  In 
1886  a  deputation  of  that  portion  of  the  tribe  under 
the  instruction  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
Territory,  waited  upon  the  Synod  of  Manitoba  to 
press  their  claims  upon  the  Church.  There  were  no 
orators  in  the  deputation,  but  there  were  some  good 
voices  that  sweetly  melted  into  the  tender  melody 
of  Keble's  Sun  of  my  Soul,  and  the  hymn,  though 
sung  in  the  language  of  the  Crees,  made  a  deeper 
impression  upon  the  Synod  than  any  other  words 
they  could  use. 

There  is  an  impressive  little  story  in  the  life  of 
the  late  Emma  Abbott,  who  won  much  praise  and 
fame  in  the  United  States  as  a  singer  in  concert  and 
opera,  that  illustrates  the  consoling  influence  of  Sun 


JOHXJxF.BLl 


SUN  OF  MY  SOUL  THOU  SAVIOR  DEAR.  145 

of  my  Soul.  The  Eev.  Frank  Wakeley  Gunsaulus, 
D.  D.,  of  Chicago,  delivered  a  sermon  a  few  years 
since  in  which  he  gave  an  incident  that  he  had  car- 
ried in  his  heart  for  ten  years.  He  said:  "In  a  dis- 
tant city  in  which  I  was  pastor,  lived  a  woman  whose 
life  seemed  a  sorrowful  wreck  from  the  beginning. 
Splendid  powers  with  brilliant  promises,  she  had 
commended  herself  in  her  artistic  endeavor  to  many 
who  had  stood  and  looked  upon  her  work  with  pride 
and  with  hope.  But 'there  came  one  desolating  day, 
and  beneath  the  feet  of  rough  men,  and  underneath 
the  far  more  oppressive  tyranny  of  slanderous  tongues, 
she  lay  quivering  with  an  aching  heart  and  a  broken 
life.  I  went  to  see  her,  invited  there  by  an  earnest 
friend,  wTent  until  I  found  that  there  were  certain 
times  in  which  light  and  glory  and  healthfulness  were 
in  such  abundance  in  that  house  that  I  could  not 
add  a  ray  of  sunshine.  And  once  I  happened  there 
after  there  rolled  away  in  a  beautiful  carriage  a  little 
woman  who  had  just  left  the  house  full  of  cheer  and 
hope.  I  knelt  at  the  very  same  spot  where  she  had 
knelt  fifteen  minutes  before.  I  found  that  the 
Infinite  God  was  ready  to  respond  in  that  atmos- 
phere, and  that  somehow  the  way  to  the 
throne  of  grace  was  an  easier  way.  I  did 
not  know  who  that  little  woman  was  until  per- 
haps six  months  after.  It  was  Emma  Abbott,  and 
the  influence  of  that  woman's  prayers,  coupled  with 
the  beautiful  hymns  she  sang,  were  the  sole  influ- 
ences that  entered  that  broken  life  and  bore  it  be- 


146  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

fore  the  throne  of  God  till  the  heart-sickness  went 
away." 

Miss  Abbott — or  rather  Mrs.  Wetherell,  that 
being  her  married  natiie — sang  several  tender  hymns 
while  kneeling  at  that  bedside,  but  she  afterwards 
said  that  the  prayer  that  was  dearest  to  her  own 
soul,  and  sank  deepest  in  the  heart  of  her  friend, 
was  expressed  in  the  lines, 

Sun  of  my  soul,  thou  Savior  dear, 
It  is  not  night  if  Thou  be  near: 
O  may  no  earth-born  cloud  arise 
To  hide  Thee  from  Thy  servant's  eyes. 

Miss  Abbott,  strange  as  it  may  appear  to  those 
who  utterly  condemn  the  stage,  was  a  deeply  religions 
woman,  and  was  a  great  lover  of  Church  song;  and 
many  times  her  sweet  voice  was  heard  at  the  bed- 
side of  the  sick  and  the  dying,  particularly  in  hospi- 
tals, where  Keble's  gracious  hymn,  and  others  of  like 
spiritual  beauty  and  power,  were  received  as  glad 
evangels. 

I  have  said  that  Keble  does  not  fill  a  large  place 
in  the  hymnals  of  American  Churches.  The  greatest 
number  found  in  any  hymn-book  is  six;  and  the 
hymnal  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  contains 
only  five.  Perhaps  this  paucity  of  his  hymns  in 
the  books  both  of  this  country  and  Great  Britain 
can  be  explained.  When  Keble  wrote  his  Christian 
Year  his  purpose  was  to  write  sacred  poems — not 
Church  hymns.  And  an  English  writer,  whose  name 
I  cannot  now  recall,  says  there  is  something  "emi- 


SUN  OF  MY  SOUL  THOU  SAVIOR  DEAR.  147 

nently  depressing  about  Keble's  want  of  personal 
ambition.  No  doubt  it  was  a  triumph  of  grace  over 
nature;  but  one  would  like  the  triumph  to  have  been 
a  little  more  impressive.  He  never  lets  himself  go; 
he  is  always  checking  and  controlling  the  impulse 
of  song." 

But  Keble's  poems  in  The  Christian  Year  have 
probably  made  more  spiritual  history  than  many  of 
the  popular  hymns.  And  certainly  not  since  the  days 
of  Charles  Wesley  has  sacred  verse  by  any  writer, 
made  so  deep  and  enduring  an  impression  upon  hu- 
man hearts  as  those  in  The  Christian  Year. 


XVIII. 

Lead,  Kindly  Light. 

HE  hymn-books  do  not  contain  a  more 
exquisite  lyric  than  Newman's  Lead, 
kindly  Light.  It  is  probably  true  that  it 
has  not  made  as  much  history  as  many  other  hymns, 
but  as  a  prayer  of  a  troubled  soul  for  guidance  it 
ranks  with  the  most  deservedly  famous  Church  songs 
in  the  English  language. 

John  Henry  Newman  was  the  son  of  a  banker, 
and  was  born  in  London  in  1801.  It  is  told  that 
in  his  early  childhood  he  was  superstitious,  and  used 
to  cross  himself  in  the  dark.  His  mother  was  a 
Calvinist,  and  when  a  child  he  was  taught  to  study 
the  Bible  and  to  read  Scott's  Commentary  thereon. 
He  was  so  precocious  that  he  was  able  to  graduate 
from  Trinity  College  when  only  nineteen  years  old. 
In  1824  he  took  Holy  Orders,  and  four  years  later 
he  accepted  the  incumbency  of  St.  Mary's,  Oxford. 

Newman  took  an  active  part  in  the  Tractarian 
movement,  and  in  1841  wrote  Tract  Ninety,  which 
high  ecclesiastics  of  the  Church  of  England  vigor- 
ously condemned.  It  aimed  to  show  that  there  was  a 
unity  between  the  separated  branches  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  of  which  the  Church  of  England  is  one,  "and 
that  the  doctrine  of  that  Church  is  essentially 
Catholic  rather  than  Protestant."    The  Tract  plungec} 


**m 

\ 

<£  t 

JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN, 


LEAD,    KINDLY    LIGHT.  149 

Newman  and  his  friends  into  hot  controversy,  and 
when  the  Church  authorities  requested  him  to 
retract,  he  refused,  "but  consented  to  stop  its  circu- 
lation." Four  years  after  the  Tract  was  published 
he  reached  the  goal — the  Eoman  Church — to  which 
he  was  driven,  so  friendly  critics  say,  "by  the  nar- 
rowness of  English  Churchmen." 

In  1848  Newman  was  appointed  Father  Superior 
of  the  Oratory  of  St.  Philip  Neri,  at  Birmingham. 
Two  parties  existed  within  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  England — the  Ultramontanes,  holding 
extreme  views  in  favoring  the  Pope's  supremacy,  led 
by  Archbishop  Manning;  and  the  Moderates,  who 
followed  Newman.  When  Leo  XIII.  was  elected  in 
1878,  he  changed  the  policy  of  the  Church,  and  to 
show  his  sympathy  with  the  Moderates  he  made 
Newman  a  Cardinal  the  next  year. 

Cardinal  Newman  was  one  of  the  most  powerful 
preachers  of  his  time.  His  beautiful  English,  his 
musical  voice  and  penetrating  words,  his  inexhausti- 
ble illustrations,  and  his  sincere  purpose  to  speak 
to  men  about  their  temptations  and  experiences, 
made  an  enduring  impression  upon  all  who  heard 
him.  But  one  authority  says:  "It  is  strange  to  tell 
that  this  preacher,  to  whose  power  so  many  testify, 
was  seldom  heard  in  public  after  he  became  a  Roman 
Catholic." 

Twelve  years  before  Newman's  departure  for 
Romanism,  and  while  yet  a  young  man,  he  wrote  one 
noble  hymn: 


150  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Lead,  kindly  Light,  amid  the  encircling  gloom; 

Lead  Thou  me  on: 
The  night  is  dark,  and  I  am  far  from  home; 

Lead  Thou  me  on. 
Keep   Thou  my  feet;   I  do  not  ask  to  see 
The  distant  scene;   one  step  enough  for  me. 

I  was  not  ever  thus,  nor  prayed  that  Thou 

Should'st  lead  me  on: 
I  loved  to  choose  and  see  my  path;  but  now, 

Lead  Thou  me  on. 
I  loved  the  garish  day,  and,  spite  of  fears, 
Pride  ruled  my  will;  remember  not  past  years. 

So  long  Thy  power  hath  blest  me,  sure  it  still 

Will  lead  me  on, 
O'er  moor  and  fen,  o'er  crag  and  torrent,  till 

The  night  is  gone, 
And  with  the  morn  those  angel  faces  smile, 
Which  I  have  loved  long  since,  and  lost  awhile. 

He  began  a  Mediterranean  tour  in  the  fall  of  1832 
in  the  hope  of  restoring  his  health.  On  this  tour 
he  visited  Eome  and  spent  much  time  in  Catholic 
Churches.  When  on  the  homeward  journey  the 
following  year  he  became  "soul-sick,"  and  passed 
through  a  strange  experience;  and  while  in  that  state 
of  mind  and  heart  he  wrote  Lead,  kindly  Light,  on 
the  sixteenth  of  June,  1833.  His  own  account  of 
how  the  hymn  was  written  possesses  special  autobi- 
ographic interest: 

"I  went  down  at  once  to  Sicily,  and  fell  ill  of  a 
fever.  My  servant  thought  I  was  dying,  and  begged 
for  my  last  directions.  I  £ave  them,  as  he  wished, 
but  said,  'I  shall  not  die/  I  repeated,  1  shall  not 
die,  for  I  have  not  sinned  against  light,  I  have  not 


LEAD,    KINDLY    LIGHT.  151 

sinned  against  light.'  I  never  have  been  able  to 
make  out  at  all  what  I  meant.  I  was  laid  up  for 
nearly  three  weeks.  Towards  the  end  of  May  I  set 
off  for  Palermo,  taking  three  days  for  the  journey. 
Before  starting  from  my  inn  in  the  morning,  I  sat 
down  on  my  bed  and  began  to  sob  bitterly.  My 
servant,  who  had  acted  as  my  nurse,  asked  what  ailed 
me.  I  could  only  answer,  'I  have  a  work  to  do  in 
England/  I  was  aching  to  get  home,  yet  for  want  of 
a  vessel  I  was  kept  at  Palermo  for  three  weeks.  I  began 
to  visit  the  churches,  and  they  calmed  my  impa- 
tience. At  last  I  got  off  in  an  orange-boat  bound  for 
Marseilles.  We  were  becalmed  a  whole  week  in  the 
Straits  of  Bonifacio.  Then  it  was  I  wrote  the  lines 
'Lead,  kindly  Light/  which  have  since  become  well 
known." 

Christians  of  all  denominations  and  of  every 
grade  of  culture  feel  the  charm  of  Newman's  hymn, 
and  find  in  it  "a  language  for  some  of  the  deepest 
yearnings  of  the  soul." 

Whatever  view  the  reader  may  hold  as  to  New- 
man's state  of  mind  in  1833  regarding  the  Koman 
Church,  I  believe  he  will  be  interested  in  the  follow- 
ing comments  on  Lead,  kindly  Light,  by  the  Eev. 
Thomas  Vincent  Tymms,  a  Baptist  minister  of  Lon- 
don: "To  myriads  the  hymn  is  a  source  of  painful 
perplexity.  All  thoughtful  Protestants  have  asked: 
'How  could  one  who  thus  sousf  f  the  leading  of  God's 
light  come  at  last  to  a  Cardinal's  chair?'  Roman 
Catholics,  of  course,  are  not  troubled  by  any  such 


152  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

question.  They  say  with  exultation,  'observe  how 
beautifully  this  prayer  has  been  answered !' 

"This  hymn  was  the  plaintive  cry  of  a  human 
spirit  wandering,  as  Newman  truly  felt,  far  from 
home,  among  wild  wastes  of  heretical  and  self-trust- 
ful thought,  yet  longing  for  such  guidance  and  peace 
as  Anglicanism  was  unable  to  afford.  On  the  other 
hand,  total  disbelievers  in  a  prayer-hearing  God  are 
not  at  all  bewildered  by  Newman's  subsequent  his- 
tory. Their  view  is  that  one  who  could  resign  him- 
self to  walk  without  a  determined  goal  or  path, 
and  was  content  to  go  plunging  on  o'er  crags  and 
seas  without  looking  two  steps  ahead,  was  sure 
to  go  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  darkness;  and 
was  the  most  likely  individual  to  sink  at  last 
into  such  a  bog  of  superstition  as  the  Eoman 
Church. 

"For  the  most  of  us,  neither  the  Agnostic  nor  the 
Eomanist  view  is  satisfactory;  each  may  be  allowed 
to  quicken  thought  and  suggest  inquiry,  but  the 
mystery  remains.  Only  the  great  'Father  of  Lights' 
can  read  all  that  passed  through  Newman's  soul  when 
this  hymn  gushed  from  his  heart,  but  it  is  possible 
to  clear  away  some  of  our  perplexity  by  a  closer  study 
of  his  inner  life.  Such  a  study  will  show  that  when 
Newman  wrote  Lead,  kindly  Light,  he  was  not,  as 
multitudes  suppose,  a  bewildered  thinker,  troubled 
by  the  deeper  problems  of  spiritual  religion,  but  had 
already  abjured  the  right  of  private  judgment,  and 
was  a  Eomanist  in  all  but  a  few  points  on  which  he 


LEAD,    KINDLY    LIGHT.  155 

inconsistently  continued  to  hold  independent  opin- 
ions for  about  a  dozen  years. 

"Nothing  could  more  painfully,  yet  vividly,  illus- 
trate Newman's  religious  temper  and  convictions  of 
duty  than  an  incident  which  occurred  immediately 
on  his  arrival  in  England  from  Eome.  While  the 
touching  strains  of  Lead,  kindly  Light  were  being 
written,  Francis  William  Newman  was  traveling 
home  from  Persia,  where  he  had  been  working  as  a 
missionary,  and  whither  he  hoped  to  return  with 
new  colleagues.  The  two  brothers  reached  their 
native  land  almost  at  the  same  hour.  These  two 
men,  each  loving  the  other,  met — they  met  twice — 
and  then  by  John's  act  and  solely  on  account  of  re- 
ligious differences,  they  parted  to  meet  no  more  for 
many  years.  This  was  one  of  those  painful  sacrifices 
of  personal  feeling  to  which  John  Henry  Newman 
was  steeling  his  nature  when  he  wrote  Lead,  kindly 
Light.  It  was  one  of  those  rough  crags  or  brawling 
torrents  he  had  nerved  himself  to  cross. 

"Before  he  wrote  Lead,  kindly  Light,  he  had 
already  done  for  his  .own  mind  what  Romanists  do 
for  their  Cathedrals  when  they  almost  exclude  the 
light  of  day  that  their  own  tapers  may  shine  with 
what  seems  a  more  religious  light.  *****  Francis 
William  Newman  virtuallv  bids  us  be  content  with 
an  eye;  John  Henry  Newman  bids  us  shut  that  eye 
and  let  the  Church  guide  us  as  she  will.  But  our 
wisdom  is  to  say,  Lead,  kindly  Light,  and  then  to 
open  wide  our  eyes,  assured  that  in  God's  light  we 


154  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

shall  see  light,  and  our  path  will  shine  more  and 
more  clearly,  o'er  moor  and  fen,  o'er  crag  and  torrent, 
until  we  come  through  Death's  shadow  to  the  Per- 
fect Day." 

The  meaning  of  the  two  closing  lines  of  the  hymn 
has  kindled  much  discussion  both  in  this  country 
and  in  England;  and  in  1879  a  friend  of  the  Cardinal 
asked  him  for  an  interpretation,  and  received  this 
note:  "You  flatter  me  by  your  questions,  but  I  think 
it  was  Keble  who,  when  asked  it  in  his  own  case, 
answered  that  poets  were  not  bound  to  be  critics  or 
to  give  a  sense  to  what  they  had  written,  and  though 
I  am  not,  like  him,  a  poet,  at  least  I  may  plead  that 
I  am  not  bound  to  remember  my  own  meaning — 
whatever  it  was — at  the  end  of  fifty  years." 

The  Kev.  L.  G.  Stevens,  editor  of  Hymns  and 
Carols,  says:  "The  beautiful  hymn,  Lead,  kindly 
Light,  is  of  value  to  the  Church  for  its  poetry  and 
its  pathos.  For  times  of  depression  and  darkness 
come  to  nearly  all  of  us,  and  this  is  just  the  cry 
which  the  heart  bowed  down  would  use  at  such  times 
of  anxious  and  sacred  communion.  The  Church 
requires  hymns  as  well  as  prayers  for  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men,  and  this  is  one  of  the  good  things 
Newman  gave  her,  when,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  says,  he 
stopped  at  the  Church  on  his  way  from  Clapham  to 
Rome." 

Once  the  Rev.  George  Huntington,  Rector  of 
Tenby,  said  to  Cardinal  Newman:  "It  must  be  a  great 
pleasure  to  you  to  know  that  you  have  written  a 


LEAD,    KINDLY   LIGHT.  155 

hymn  treasured  wherever  English-speaking  Chris- 
tians are  to  be  found."  The  Cardinal  was  silent  for 
a  moment,  and  then  answered  with  emotion:  "Yes, 
deeply  thankful,  and  more  than  thankful."  Then 
after  a  pause  he  continued:  "But  you  see  it  is  not 
the  hymn  but  the  tune  that  has  gained  the  popular- 
ity. The  tune  is  by  Dykes,  and  Dykes  was  a  great 
master."  It  has  been  noted  that  while  the  hymn  was 
inspired  when  the  poet  was  becalmed  on  the  still 
waters  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  melody  to  which 
it  is  wedded,  came  from  the  heart  of  Dr.  John  Bac- 
chus Dykes  as  he  strolled  through  the  Strand,  one  of 
the  noisy,  crowded  thoroughfares  of  London. 

The  world-wide  use  of  Lead,  kindly  Light,  is 
illustrated  in  the  fact  that  "when  the  Par- 
liament of  Eeligions  met  at  Chicago  during 
the  Columbian  Exposition,  the  representatives 
of  every  creed  known  to  man  found  two  things  on 
which  they  were  agreed.  Thev  could  all  join  in 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  could  all  sing  Lead,  kindly 
Light." 

Many  persons  have  asked  themselves  this  ques- 
tion: "If  Newman  could  write  one  great  hymn,  why 
could  he  not  have  written  more?"  An  answer  is 
easily  made.  A  really  noble  hymn  like  Lead,  kindly 
Light,  comes  only  by  inspiration.  It  can  never  be 
produced  at  will.  It  is  said  that  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  wrote  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "in  a  subconscious 
state."  When  her  publishers  would  ask  as  to  the 
time  they  might  expect  a  new  installment  of  copy, 


156  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

6he  was  accustomed  to  say,  devoutly,  "The  Lord  only 
knows;  wait  till  I  am  inspired." 

After  1833  Cardinal  Newman  seems  never  to  have 
experienced  that  condition  of  mind  and  heart — oth- 
erwise known  as  divine  afflatus — when  he  could  write 
a  hymn  so  full  of  beauty  and  pathos  as 

Lead,  kindly  Light,  amid  the  encircling  gloom; 
Lead  Thou  me  on. 


CHARLOTTE   ELLIOTT. 


XIX. 
Just  As  I  Am. 

"*W/  UDGED  by  the  largeness  of  its  use  and  the 
important  history  it  has  made,  no  other 
hymn  in  the  English  tongue  surpasses 
Charlotte  Elliott's  Just  as  I  am,  Without  one  Plea. 
Dwight  L.  Moody  once  expressed  the  opinion  that 
during  the  past  fifty  years  this  hymn  "has  done  the 
most  good  to  the  greatest  number;"  and  he  thought  it 
had  touched  more  hearts  than  any  other  hymn  that 
could  be  named.  Its  extraordinary  popularity,  and 
its  translation  into  almost  every  language  in  the 
civilized  world,  confirm  the  measure  of  influence  the 
evangelist  gives  the  hymn. 

The  life  of  Miss  Elliott  is  full  of  peculiar  inter- 
est. She  was  born  at  Clapham,  England,  in  1789. 
Reared  in  the  Church  of  England,  she  grew  to  wom- 
anhood "surrounded  by  culture  and  refinement,  and 
poetry  and  music."  In  1821  a  severe  illness  left 
her  a  permanent  invalid.  She  first  met  the  Eev. 
Dr.  Caesar  Malan,  the  distinguished  preacher  of 
Geneva,  Switzerland,  in  1822,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
visit  to  the  Elliott  family  at  Clapham.  He  appreci- 
ated her  talent  and  possibilities  of  great  Christian 
service,  and  he  induced  her  to  abandon  secular  pur- 
suits; and  from  that  time  her  true  apostleship  began; 
and  to  her  acquaintance  with  the  Genevan  divine 


158  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

"is  attributed  much  of  the  deep  spiritual-mindedness 
which  is  so  prominent  in  her  hymns." 

Miss  Elliott  is  the  author  of  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  hymns,  and  a  large  proportion  of  them 
is  still  in  use.  Nearly  all  of  them  enshrine  her 
spiritual  experience  in  a  marked  degree.  Her  great- 
est hymn — great  in  poetic  excellence,  and  greater 
yet  in  historic  associations — is 

Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 
But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me, 
And  that  Thou  bidd'st  me  come  to  Thee, 
0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come! 

Just  as  I  am,  and  waiting  not 
To  rid  my  soul  of  one  dark  blot, 
To  Thee,  whose  blood  can  cleanse  each  spot, 
0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come! 

Just  as  I  am,  though  tossed  about 
With  many  a  conflict,  many  a  doubt, 
Fightings  and  fears  within,   without, 
0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come! 

Just  as  I  am,  poor,  wretched,  blind; 
Sight,  riches,  healing  of  the  mind, 
Yea,  all  I  need  in  Thee  to  find, 
0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come! 

Just  as  I  am,  Thou  wilt  receive, 
Wilt  welcome,  pardon,  cleanse,  relieve, 
Because  Thy  promise  I  believe, 
O  Lamb  of  God,  I  come! 

Just  as  I  am  (Thy  love  unknown 
Has  broken  every  barrier  down), 
Now  to  be  Thine,  yea,  Thine  alone, 
0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come! 


JUST  AS  I  AM.  159 

Just  as  I  am,  of  that  free  love 
The  breadth,  length,  depth,  and  height  to  prove, 
Here  for  a  season,  then  above, 
0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come! 

The  hymn  was  written  in  1836,  and  was  first  pub- 
lished in  The  Christian  Eemembrancer  without  the 
name  of  Miss  Elliott.  Its  merit  quickly  attracted 
public  attention,,  and  in  a  little  while  it  found  its 
way  into  newspapers,  magazines,  and  various  other 
publications.  For  many  months  it  circulated  anony- 
mously all  over  Great  Britain,  carrying  softening 
influence  and  sweet  consolation  into  many  homes. 
Shortly  after  its  publication  in  The  Eemembrancer 
a  philanthropic  lady  in  England,  admiring  the  beauty 
of  the  hymn  and  appreciating  its  spiritual  value, 
caused  it  to  be  printed  in  leaflet  form  and  distribu- 
ted gratuitously  in  many  towns  and  cities.  At  this 
time  Miss  Elliott  was  quite  ill  and  had  gone  to  Tor- 
quay for  treatment.  With  a  seeming  increase  of 
strength  one  day  there  came  a  momentary  gleam 
of  cheerfulness,  and  the  physician  took  from  his 
pocket-book  one  of  these  leaflets,  and  not  knowing 
that  his  patient  was  the  author  of  the  lines  he 
remarked  that  they  had  been  helpful  to  him,  and  was 
pleased  to  believe  that  they  would  be  a  comfort  to 
her.  Miss  Elliott  took  the  leaflet,  and  when  she  saw 
the  title  a  smile  beamed  on  her  pain-worn  face,  but 
as  she  read  the  lines, 

Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 

But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me; 


160  BfMNS  niSTOUICALLY  FAMOUS. 

great  tears,  more  impressive  than  words,  expressed 
her  gratitude  that  the  hymn,  written  in  pain  and  in 
a  spirit  of  deep  humility,  should  be  so  largely  blest 
to  the  glory  of  God.    ' 

Unfortunately,  a  story  has  been  published  in 
many  Church  papers,  and  has  frequently  been 
repeated  from  the  pulpit,  which  associates  this  hymn 
with  Miss  Elliott's  repentance  after  living  a  life  of 
frivolity  and  ungodliness,  prior  to  her  acquaintance 
with  Dr.  Malan,  in  1822.  The  hymn  was  written 
fourteen  years  after  her  so-called  conversion,  when 
she  was  forty-seven  years  old,  and  while  she  was  pass- 
ing through  the  "hot  furnace  of  living  pain/' 

It  is  said  that  in  Germany  there  once  stood  two 
vast  towers  on  the  extremes  of  a  castle;  and  that 
great  wires  were  strung  from  one  to  the  other, 
which  formed  an  Aeolian  harp.  Ordinary  winds  pro- 
duced no  effect  upon  the  mighty  instrument;  but 
when  fierce  storms  and  wild  tempests  came  rushing 
down  the  mountain  sides  and  through  the  valleys, 
and  hurled  themselves  against  the  wires,  then  they 
began  to  roll  out  the  most  majestic  strains  of  music. 
And  it  is  thus  with  many  of  the  deepest  emotions 
of  the  human  soul.  "The  soft  and  balmy  zephyrs 
that  fan  the  brow  of  ease,  and  cheer  the  hours  of 
prosperity  and  repose,  give  no  token  of  the  inward 
strength  and  blessing  which  the  tempest's  wrath  dis- 
closes." 

It  was  a  storm  of  pain  and  sorrow  assaulting  the 
soul    that    brought    from    the    heart    of    Charlotte 


JUST   AS  I  AM,  161 

Elliott  the  hymn  that  has  become  as  universal  as  any 
in  the  language.  There  is  deep  significance  in  Madame 
de  StaePs  interrogatory:  "He  who  has  suffered  noth- 
ing, what  does  he  know?"  It  was  "amid  the  encir- 
cling gloom,"  and  in  pain  and  invalidism  that  con- 
tinued for  fifty  years,  that  Miss  Elliott  wrote  so  many 
of  her  tender  hymns.  Had  not  her  inner  vision  been 
cleared  by  suffering  she  would  never  have  written 
Just  as  I  Am. 

There  are  many  incidents  which  illustrate  the 
positive  influence  of  this  hymn.  The  Rev.  Joseph 
Peat  of  England,  was  an  active  and  successful  mis- 
sionary in  Travancore,  India,  for  many  years.  He 
began  a  mission  in  a  city  of  such  fierce  bigotry  that 
he  was  said  to  have  thrust  his  fist  into  a  lion's  mouth. 
He  had  many  hair-breadth  escapes  from  death.  His 
labors  for  more  than  thirty  years  were  most  abun- 
dant, so  that  on  his  death-bed  he  received  deputa- 
tions from  nearly  twenty  congregations  gathered 
from  among  the  heathens.  After  he  gave  his  dying 
charge  to  eight  native  ministers  who  had  been  more 
or  less  educated  under  his  charge,  he  composed  him- 
self for  his  last  sleep,  and  exclaimed:  "Now  repeat 
my  favorite  hymn — Just  as  I  am,  Without  one  Plea." 

A  fine  tribute  to  this  hymn  is  given  in  the  mem- 
orials of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Charles  Pettit  Mcllvaine, 
Bishop  of  Ohio,  who  died  in  Florence  in  1873.  In 
describing  the  closing  service  of  a  convention  in  his 
diocese  the  Bishop  writes:  "I  had  chosen  a  sweet 
hymn  to  be  sung,  and  had  it  printed  on  cards;  and 


162  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

I  have  adopted  it  for  all  time  to  come,  as  long  as  I 
shall  be  here,  as  my  hymn,  always  to  be  sung  on  such 
occasions,  and  always  to  the  same  tune.  It  is  that 
precious  hymn  by  Miss  Elliott,  Just  as  I  am,  With- 
out one  Plea,  which  so  beautifully  expresses  the  very 
essence  of  the  gospel.  That  hymn  contains  my 
religion,  my  theology,  my  hope.  It  has  been  my 
ministry  to  preach  just  what  it  contains.  When  I 
am  gone  I  wish  to  be  remembered  in  association  with 
that  hymn.  I  wish  that  my  ministry  may  be  asso- 
ciated with 

Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 
But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me, 
And    that   Thou  bidd'st  me   come  to  Thee, 
0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come!" 

Some  years  later  when  the  Bishop  was  on  his  death- 
bed in  far-off  Italy,  he  sent  loving  messages  to  friends 
in  Ohio,  and  then  said:  "Bead  to  me  three  hymns — 
Just  as  I  Am;  Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul;  and  Eock 
of  Ages."  The  hymns  were  read,  and  in  departing 
"he  was  filled  with  joy  and  peace." 

At  the  close  of  one  of  John  Wanamaker's  great 
Sunday  School  sessions  in  Philadelphia  a  few  years 
since,  he  told  the  school  that  one  of  their  members 
was  dying.  He  said:  "This  young  man  was  in  that 
class  (pointing  to  the  gallery)  one  week  ago  to-day. 
He  now  sends  a  message  asking  us  to  pray  for  him 
and  sing  in  his  behalf,  Just  as  I  am,  Without  one 
Plea."  Mr.  Wanamaker  then  plead  in  prayer  for  the 
young  man,  and  the  great  audience,  melted  to  tears, 


JUST  AS  I  AM.  163 

rose  and  sang  the  confessing  penitent's  hymn.  The 
fifth  stanza  was  sung  with  such  pathos  and  assurance 
that  a  visitor,  who  happened  to  be  present  was  then 
and  there — rescued  from  "many  a  conflict,  many  a 
doubt,"  and  saved  to  a  new  faith  and  a  new  hope. 

In  one  of  John  B.  Gough' s  lectures  he  gives  an 
account  of  a  visit  he  once  made  to  a  city  church 
where  a  Sunday  morning  service  was  being  held.  He 
was  seated  with  a  stranger  so  repulsive  in  appearance 
that  he  was  compelled  to  move  to  the  extreme  end  of 
the  pew.  The  song  part  of  the  service  began  with 
the  hymn,  Just  as  I  Am.  "He  can't  be  so  disagree- 
able after  all,"  said  Mr.  Gough  to  himself  seeing 
that  the  man  knew  the  hymn  and  sang  it,  and  he 
moved  up  nearer  to  him.  "But  the  singing,"  said 
the  lecturer,  "was  positively  awful."  The  poor  fel- 
low could  not  keep  up  with  the  congregation,  and 
now  and  then  his  lips  would  twitch  out  a  strange, 
discordant  sound.  When  the  organist  was  playing 
the  interlude  between  the  third  and  fourth  stanzas, 
the  man  leaned  toward  Mr.  Gough  and  whispered: 
"Would  you  be  kind  enough  to  give  me  the  first  line 
of  the  next  verse?"    The  line, 

Just  as  I  am,  poor,  -wretched,  blind, 

was  repeated  to  him,  when  he  said:  "That's  it;  and  I 
am  blind — God  help  me;  and  I  am  a  paralytic."  He 
then  tried  to  sing, 

Just  as  I  am,  poor,  wretched,  blind; 

and  Mr.  Gough,  in  describing  the  effect  upon  him- 


164  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

self,  said:  "At  that  moment  it  seemed  to  me  that  I 
never  heard  in  my  life  a  Beethoven  Symphony  with 
as  much  music  in  it  as  in  the  blundering  singing 
of  that  hymn  by  the  poor  paralytic." 

Mrs.  Dora  Quillinan,  the  only  daughter  of  the 
poet  Wordsworth,  died  in  1847.  Her  husband, 
Edward  Quillinan,  a  voluminous  writer  of  consid- 
erable note  in  his  time,  wrote  to  Miss  Elliott  telling 
her  what  comfort  her  hymn  had  given  his  wife  dur- 
ing her  last  days.  He  said:  "When  I  first  read 
Just  as  I  Am,  I  had  no  sooner  finished  than  she 
said  very  earnestly,  'that  is  the  very  thing  for  me/ 
At  least  ten  times  that  day  she  asked  me  to  repeat 
it,  and  every  morning  from  that  day  till  her  decease, 
nearly  two  months,  the  first  thing  she  asked  me  for 
was  her  hymn.  'Now  my  hymn/  she  would  say — 
and  she  would_often  repeat  it  after  me,  line  for  line, 
in  the  day  and  night." 

The  Rev.  D.  W.  Couch,  at  one  time  pastor  of 
the  Lenox  Eoad  Church,  Brooklyn,  recently  con- 
tributed an  article  to  the  New  York  Christian  Ad- 
vocate which  illustrates  the  influence  of  this  hymn. 
One  Sunday  evening  in  the  summer  of  1895  the 
Epworth  League,  at  its  meeting  previous  to  the 
Church  service,  sang  Just  as  I  Am;  and  it  was  a 
peculiar  coincidence  that  the  first  hymn  sung  at 
the  regular  hour  for  Church  worship  was  also  Just 
as  I  Am.  It  was  a  hot  evening  and  the  windows 
were  open.  Only  two  doors  away  lived  a 
young    lawyer,     and  while  lying  in  his  room  with 


JUST  AS  I  AM.  165 

the  windows  raised,  he  could  hear  every  word  of 
the  hymn. 

For  some  time  he  had  been  hardened  and  skep- 
tical,, and  resisted  the  best  influences  until  he  thought 
it  was  too  late  to  reform.  But  this  hymn  sung  by 
two  different  congregations  the  same  evening  made 
a  powerful  impression  upon  him.  The  next  day  he 
sent  for  Mr.  Couch,  and  with  "streaming  eyes  and 
a  voice  full  of  emotion,"  he  related  the  circumstance 
of  his  conversion.  Shortly  after  this  happy  event  the 
young  man  found  it  necessary  to  go  to  North  Caro- 
lina in  the  hope  of  having  his  health  restored,  but 
disease  had  marked  him  for  an  early  grave,  and  six 
months  after  reaching  the  South  he  passed  away. 

In  every  part  of  the  wide  world  this  hymn  seems 
to  be  sung.  Some  one  says  that  it  "has  been  chanted 
by  half -clad  savages  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges; 
the  barbarous  tribes  of  Congo-land  have  found  in  it 
the  expression  of  a  higher  hope  and  a  purer  faith 
than  their  fathers  dreamed  of;  in  lonely  Alpine 
chapels  and  among  the  isolated  communities  of  the 
Russian  steppes,  it  has  been  heard;  it  is  breathed  in 
the  chamber  of  death,  and  in  homes  where  Hamlet 
is  but  a  name,  Just  as  I  Am  is  a  vivifying  fact." 

Another  hymn  that  touchingly  reflects  the  state 
of  Miss  Elliott's  mind  during  her  illness  of  fifty 
years,  is  My  God  and  Father  while  I  Stray,  which  is 
better  known  perhaps  by  the  title,  Thy  Will  be  Done. 
It  is  a  tender  and  beautiful  hymn  and  was  a  special 
favorite  with  Queen  Victoria.     Probably  the  sever- 


166  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

est  bereavement  that  had  befallen  Her  Majesty  since 
the  death  of  the  Prince  Consort  in  1861,  was  the 
loss  of  her  daughter,  Princess  Alice  of  Hesse,  mother 
of  the  present  Czarina  of  Russia.  Her  little  boy  had 
been  suffering  from  diptheria  for  several  days;  and 
the  physician  told  her  to  be  careful  not  to  get  near 
the  breath  of  his  little  life.  One  day  when  in  a 
state  of  deep  anxiety,  she  stood  close  to  the  bed; 
and  by  and  by  the  wandering  spirit  of  the  boy 
returned,  and  seeing  his  mother  near  him,  he 
extended  his  little  hands  and  whispered,  "Kiss  me, 
mamma."  Her  love  for  her  boy  was  stronger  than 
her  fear  of  death,  and  putting  her  arms  around  him, 
she  bathed  his  feverish  brow  with  her  tears,  and 
bowed  her  lips  and  kissed  him — and  lost  her  life. 

This  was  in  1878 — the  fourteenth  of  December 
— the  anniversary  of  her  father's  death;  and  at  the 
funeral  the  Queen  chose  Thy  Will  be  Done  as  one  of 
the  two  selections  to  be  sung  in  the  private  chapel 
in  Windsor  Castle.  The  hymn  has  a  sweet,  melting 
touch  that  moved  Her  Majesty  pathetically,  and 
since  the  death  of  the  Princess  it  has  been  sung  sev- 
eral times  at  commemoration  services  at  Windsor. 


~m 


xx. 

Abide  With  Me. 

is  as  interesting  as  it  is  impressive  that 
much  of  the  poetry  that  has  the  firmest 
grasp  upon  human  feelings  has  death,  or 
some  topic  or  incident  associated  with  death,  for  its 
theme.  In  the  case  of  the  world's  greatest  poets  and 
hymn-writers,  their  "most  celebrated  productions  are 
of  this  description;  and  in  other  instances  the  imper- 
ishable fame  of  the  poet  depends  almost  wholly  upon 
a  single  piece  in  which  he  has,  by  a  single  flash  of 
genius,  as  it  were,  given  voice  to  humanity's  deep 
feeling  with  regard  to  the  ineffable  mystery." 

For  example,  the  best  known  and  most  highly 
prized  of  all  William  Cullen  Bryant's  poems  is 
Thanatopsis,  which  means  "A  view  of  death,"  and  was 
written  when  he  was  only  eighteen  years  old.  When 
Tennyson  was  twenty-four  he  wrote  his  finest  poem 
— In  Memoriam — which  commemorates  the  death  of 
his  young  friend,  Arthur  Henry  Hallam.  The  repu- 
tation of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  was  achieved  by 
The  Last  Leaf.     The  fourth  stanza  reads, 

The  mossy  marbles  rest 

On   the  ]ips   that   he   has    pressed 

In  their  bloom; 
And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 

On  the  tomb. 


168  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

This  little  poem  was  regarded  with  peculiar  favor  by 
President  Lincoln,  and  speaking  of  this  stanza  he 
once  said:  "For  pure  pathos,  in  my  judgment,  there 
is  nothing  finer  than  those  six  lines  in  the  English 
language."  It  will  hardly  be  questioned  that  James 
Eussell  Lowell's  masterpiece  is  The  Vision  of  Sir 
Launfal,  the  theme  being  one  that  touches  on  the 
relation  between  time  and  eternity. 

And  in  the  realm  of  Church  song  we  find  that 
the  ineffable  mystery  has  inspired  many  famous 
hymns.  There  is  melancholy  interest  in  the  story 
of  Abide  With  Me,  by  Henry  Francis  Lyte.  He  was 
born  at  Ednam,  Scotland,  in  1793.  His  father  was 
a  British  captain,  and  died  when  Henry  was  an 
infant.  A  few  years  later  his  mother  was  taken  from 
him,  and  being  dependent  upon  charity,  friends  took 
charge  of  his  education,  and  in  the  course  of  time 
he  was  sent  to  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  where  he 
was  graduated  in  1814. 

It  was  Lyte's  purpose  to  study  for  the  medical 
profession,  but  fortunately  he  was  persuaded  to  take 
up  theology,  and  in  1815  he  took  Holy  Orders;  and 
in  1823  he  entered  upon  the  perpetual  curacy  of 
Lower  Brixham,  Devonshire,  England,  which  he  held 
till  his  death  twenty-five  years  later.  His  people 
were  poor,  sea-faring,  yet  warm-hearted,  to  whom  he 
gave  the  highest  service  of  which  his  bright  intel- 
lect and  consecrated  life  were  capable.  His  body 
was  always  feeble,  but  he  never  shrank  from  labor 
and  never  quailed  in  the  hour  of  suffering. 


HENRY  FRANCIS  LYTE. 


ABIDE  WITH  ME.  169 

When  Lyte  took  Orders  he  did  not  seem  to  feel, 
or  understand,  the  gospel  he  preached;  in  other 
words,  his  heart  was  not  put  in  the  work.  In  1818 
a  brother  clergyman  who  felt  that  he  was  dying, 
wanted  counsel  and  sent  for  Lyte.  The  meeting 
revealed  the  fact  that  neither  of  them  had  the  con- 
solations of  that  religion  that  gives  hope,  confidence, 
and  strength  to  one  who  is  passing  into  eternal  sleep. 
They  began  to  study  the  Scriptures  in  a  new  light, 
and  the  author  of  our  hymn  experienced  a  change 
that  affected  the  whole  temper  of  his  mind  and  life. 
It  was  the  occasion  that  gave  birth  to  the  beautiful 
hymn  so  often  sung  to  the  lovely  strains  of  Mozart's 
music, 

Jesus,    I   my    cross    have    taken, 

All   to  leave  and   follow  Thee; 
Naked,  poor,  despised,  forsaken, 

Thou,  from  hence,  my  all  shalt  'be. 
Perish,   every   fond   ambition, 

All  I've  sought,  or  hoped,  or  known 
Yet  how  rich  is  my  condition! 

God  and  heaven  are  still  my  own. 

Lyte  was  a  life-long  sufferer,  and  year  by  year 
his  weakness  increased,  and  hence  the  "sadness  and 
tenderness"  in  nearly  all  his  hymns.  His  songs 
rarely  ever  "swell  out  into  joy  and  gladness."  In  the 
autumn  of  1847  he  was  admonished  to  seek  a  warmer 
climate;  and  to  a  friend  he  said  pathetically:  "The 
swallows  are  preparing  for  flight  southward,  and 
inviting  me  to  accompany  them,  although  I  am  just 
able  to  crawl."     On  the  first  Sunday  in  September, 


170  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

he  insisted  upon  speaking  to  his  people  once  more, 
and  being  assisted  to  the  pulpit  he  preached  his 
farewell  sermon.  After  administering  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  to  his  weeping  congregation, 
he  was  taken  to  his  little  cottage  home;  and  at  even- 
tide he  gave  a  relative  the  manuscript  of  the  beau- 
tiful hymn  that  is  matchless  in  its  pathos: 

Abide  with  me,  fast  falls  the  eventide: 
The  darkness  thickens:  Lord,  with  me  abide; 
When  other  helpers  fail,  and  comforts  flee, 
Help  of  the  helpless,  oh,  abide  with  me. 

Swift  to  its  close  ebbs  out  life's  little  day; 
Earth's  joys  grow  dim,  its  glories  pass  away; 
Change  and  decay  in  all  around  I  see: 

0  Thou  who  changest  not,  abide  with  me. 

Not  a  brief  glance  I  beg,  a  passing  word, 
But  as  Thou  dwell'st  with  Thy  disciples,  Lord,— 
Familiar,  condescending,  patient,  free, — 
Come  not  to  sojourn,  but  abide  with  me. 

Come  not  in  terrors,  as  the  King  of  kings, 
But  kind  and  good,  with  healing  in  Thy  wings; 
Tears  for  all  woes,  a  heart  for  every  plea; 
Come,  Friend  of  sinners,  thus  abide  with  me. 

1  need  Thy  presence  every  passing  hour; 
What  but  Thy  grace  can  foil  the  tempter's  power? 
Who  like  Thyself  my  guide  and  stay  can  be? 
Through   cloud   and   sunshine,   oh  abide  with   me. 

I  fear  no  foe,  with  Thee  at  hand  to  bless, 
Els  have  no  weight,  and  tears  no  bitterness. 
Where  is  Death's  sting?  where,  Grave,  thy  victory? 
I  triumph  still,  if  Thou  abide  with  me. 


ABIDE  WITH  ME.  171 

Hold  Thou  Thy  cross  before  my  closing  eyes, 
Shine  through  the  gloom,  and  point  me  to  the  skies: 
Heaven's  morning  breaks,  and  earth's  vain  shadows  flee; 
In  life,  in  death,  0  Lord,  abide  with  me. 

This  was  the  final  poetic  utterance  of  the  suffering 
and  sweet-spirited  Lyte.  When  life's  hours  were 
slowly  ebbing  he  wrote  a  poem  called  Declining  Days, 
in  which  he  prayed, 

0  Thou!  whose  touch  can  lend 

Life  to  the  dead,  Thy  quickening  grace  supply; 
And  grant  me,  swan-like,  my  last  breath  to  spend 

In  song  that  may  not  die. 

This  prayer  was  answered  in  the  hymn  that  goes 
around  the  world  to  soothe  the  sorrowing  and  calm 
and  sustain  the  weary  ones  who  are  called  to  pass 
through  the  midnight  of  life  into  the  glory  of  ever- 
lasting day. 

It  was  Lyte's  purpose  to  go  to  Kome,  but  his 
rapid  decline  compelled  him  to  stop  at  Nice.  He 
felt  that  the  end  was  near,  and  requested  the  pres- 
ence of  a  clergyman.  The  request  was  responded 
to  by  Henry  Edward  Manning,  then  an  Archdeacon 
in  the  Church  of  England,  and  afterwards  Cardi- 
nal in  the  Church  of  Eome.  The  gloom  of  the  win- 
ter of  life  gathered  about  him,  the  darkness  deepened, 
and  on  the  twentieth  of  November,  1847,  the  shadow 
of  his  last  cloud  was  dispelled,  and  with  a  smiling 
face  he  whispered  words  of  splendid  Christian  tri- 
umph— "Joy.  Peace."  In  Lyte's  death  was  ful- 
filled the  word  of  Zechariah — "At  evening  time  it 
shall  be  light." 


172  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  Abide  With  Me 
was  intended  for  an  evening  hymn,  but  this  is  a 
"curious  instance  of  the  misapprehension  of  its  true 
meaning/'  as  the  facts  clearly  show  that  there  is  not 
athe  slightest  allusion  in  the  hymn  to  the  close  of 
the  natural  day." 

This  plaintive,  but  lovely  hymn,  has  enshrined 
itself  in  the  hearts  of  Christians  in  all  English- 
speaking  countries;  and  the  unwritten  history  of  its 
spiritual  use  would  be  extremely  interesting.  The 
Eev.  George  D.  Baker  of  Philadelphia,  says  he  once 
visited  the  grave  of  Lyte,  and  found  that  another 
visitor  had  preceded  him  to  the  sacred  spot.  He 
was  a  young  man,  shedding  tears  of  gratitude.  The 
words  of  the  hymn  had  been  the  direct  means  of  his 
conversion. 

Abide  With  Me  has  been  a  rich  blessing  to  untold 
numbers.  The  experience  of  Jennie  O'Neill  Potter 
illustrates  its  helpfulness  in  the  evening  of  our  little 
day.  When  that  gifted  elocutionist  and  reader  lay 
dying  in  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  New  York,  in  the 
spring  of  1900,  the  closing  of  her  young  and  brilliant 
life  by  an  incurable  disease  did  not  disturb  her  soul. 
The  physicians  told  her  that  her  remaining  days  were 
only  about  ninety;  and  she  began  a  patient  waiting 
for  the  inevitable  hour.  The  nurses  wondered  how 
the  irail  little  woman  could  be  so  happy.  She  would 
sing  to  herself  all  day  long,  and  as  the  evening  fell 
over  the  big  building  up  on  the  hill  not  far  from 
General  Grant's  tomb,  a  delightful  melody,  with  some 


ABIDE  WITH  ME.  173 

pathetic  words,  would  come  from  Miss  Potter's  room. 
Physicians  and  nurses  could  not  restrain  their  tears 
of  sympathy  as  they  listened  with  breathless  atten- 
tion as  she  softly  crooned  the  tender  lines, 

Abide   with  me,   fast   falls  the  eventide; 
The  darkness  deepens;  Lord,  with  me  abide! 
When  other  helpers  fail,  and  comforts  flee, 
Help  of  the  helpless,  oh,  abide  with  me! 

In  the  mortal  struggle  with  disease,  when  "other 
helpers  failed/'  and  when  all  around  was  dark,  this 
hymn  was  Miss  Potter's  comfort  to  the  very  hour 
when  she  realized  the  full  meaning  of  the  trium- 
phant line, 

Heaven's  morning  breaks,  and  earth's  vain  shadows  flee. 

It  is  fortunate  that  Abide  With  Me  is  associated 
with  splendid  music.  The  history  of  Eventide  is 
as  peculiar  as  the  musical  settings  of  Lead,  kindly 
Light,  or  From  Greenland's  icy  Mountains.  The 
tune  was  composed  in  1861  by  Dr.  William  Henry 
Monk,  a  noted  organist  of  London,  and  musical  edi- 
tor of  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern.  One  day  he  was 
about  to  leave  his  home  when  the  thought  struck 
him  that  no  tune  had  been  selected  for  hymn  No. 
27 — Abide  With  Me.  He  stopped  just  a  moment 
to  read  the  hymn  that  its  sentiment  might  be  fresh 
in  his  mind;  and  in  a  few  minutes  he  composed 
Eventide,  which  should  never  be  dissociated  from 
Lyte's  immortal  hymn. 


XXI. 
Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee. 


P7lT/^  there  ^s  any  suc^  thing  as  hymns  becom- 
K/Jl)  *n&  iminortal  it  is  because  they  link  them- 
1  l(iy^  selves  to  the  universal  heart  on  account 
of  their  adaptation  to  the  various  conditions  of 
human  needs.  Among  this  class  of  hymns  is  Nearer, 
my  God,  to  Thee — one  of  the  world-hymns,  "and 
acceptable  alike  to  Protestant  and  Catholic,  and  Gen- 
tile and  Jew." 

Curious  and  interesting  are  some  of  the  facts 
concerning  this  hymn.  They  illustrate  how  events 
which,  for  the  time  being,  seem  unimportant  or 
unfortunate,  ultimately  bring  unspeakable  benefit 
to  mankind.  Benjamin  Flower  of  England,  was 
editor  of  The  Cambridge  Intelligencer,  a  weekly 
paper  of  radical  principles.  He  defended  the  French 
Eevolution  of  1798,  and  seemed  to  have  fair  ground 
for  sharply  criticising  the  political  conduct  of  the 
Bishop  of  Llandaff.  But  the  House  of  Lords  took 
a  different  view  of  the  matter,  and  he  was  sentenced 
to  Newgate  for  six  months.  While  in  jail  he  was 
frequently  visited  by  Miss  Eliza  Gould  who  devoted 
much  time  to  the  temporal  and  spiritual  welfare  of 
prisoners.  During  his  term  at  Newgate  the  acquain- 
tance of  Flower  and  the  young  Samaritan  ripened 
into  warm  friendship,  and  after  his  release,  about 


NEARER,   MY  GOD,  TO  THEE.  175 

1800,  they  were  married.  The  fruit  of  that  mar- 
riage were  Eliza  and  Sarah  Flower,  the  latter  being 
born  at  Great  Harlow,  Essex,  in  1805.  Early  in 
life  she  was  uncommonly  gifted  in  literature,  and 
wrote  many  important  essays  and  poems  for  various 
periodicals.  Leigh  Hunt  called  her  "a  mistress  of 
thought  and  tears." 

Before  her  marriage  in  1834  to  William  Bridges 
Adams,  a  civil  engineer  and  journalist,  she  displayed 
60  much  dramatic  talent  as  to  have  meditated  adopt- 
ing the  stage  as  a  profession,  but  the  bent  of  her  mind 
was  lyrical  rather  than  dramatic.  In  1841  she  pub- 
lished a  dramatic  poem  of  "great  beauty  and  intense 
feeling,  founded  on  the  story  of  a  Christian  martyr, 
Vivia  Perpetua,  who  was  put  to  death  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  third  century  in  Carthage."  In  the  poem 
is  a  hymn  entitled  Part  in  Peace.  The  little  com- 
pany of  Christians  met  in  a  cave  sepulcher,  dimly 
lighted,  just  after  they  heard  that  the  edict  had 
been  issued  for  their  arrest,  and  there  they  sang 
the  hymn;  and  in  prison,  after  partaking  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  on  the  night  before  their  martyrdom, 
they  all  again  sang  the  lines, 

Part  in  peace — Christ's  life  was  peace; 

Let  us  live  our  life  in  Him; 
Part  in  peace— Christ's  death  was  peace; 

Let  us  die  our   death  in  Him. 
Part  in  peace — Christ  promise  gave 
Of  a  life  beyond  the  grave, 
Where  all  mortal  partings  cease. 

Part  in  peace. 


176  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

The  composition,  however,  by  which  Mrs.  Adams 
is  best  known,  is  her  great  hymn, 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee! 

Nearer  to  Xhee, 
E'en    though  it  be  a  cross 

That  raiseth  me; 
Still  all  my  song  shall  be, 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 

Nearer  to  Thee! 

Though  like  the  wanderer, 

The  sun  gone  down, 
Darkness  be  over  me, 

My  rest  a  stone, 
Yet  in  my  dreams  I'd  be 
Nearer,  my  God  to  Thee, 

Nearer  to  Thee! 

There  let  the   way  appear, 

Steps  unto  heaven; 
All  that  Thou  sendest  me. 

In  mercy  given; 
Angels  to  beckon  me 
Nearer,  my  God  to  Thee, 

Nearer  to  Thee! 

Then,  with  my  waking  thoughts 

Bright  with  Thy  praise, 
Out  of  my  stony  griefs 

Bethel  I'll  raise; 
So  by  my  woes  to  be 
Nearer,  my  God  to  Thee, 

Nearer  to  Thee! 

Or  if,  on  joyful  wing 

Cleaving  the  sky, 
Sun,  moon,  and  stars  forgot, 

Upward  I  fly, 
Still   all  my  song  shall  be, 
Nearer,  my  God  to  Thee, 

Nearer  to  Thee! 


NEARER,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE.  177 

The  hymn  was  written  in  1840,  and  was  published 
in  a  collection  of  hymns  and  anthems  the  following 
year.  Mrs.  Adams  was  greatly  inspired  in  her  hymns, 
especially  in  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee.  "Its  imagery 
embraces  the  associations  of  one  of  the  most  sublime 
and  interesting  religious  experiences  recorded  in  the 
early  Hebrew  Scriptures — Jacob's  vision  at  Luz;  his 
journey  to  Padan-Aram,  when  he  halted  for  the 
night  at  Bethel  and  falling  asleep,  with  a  stone  for 
his  pillow,  dreamed  that  he  saw  a  ladder  let  down 
from  heaven  to  earth,  with  angels  ascending  and 
descending  upon  it.  The  hymn  almost  literally 
reproduces  this  delightful  incident  of  Scripture." 

There  is  deep  pathos  in  the  personal  history  of 
this  hymn.  The  two  sisters  inherited  the  feeble 
organization  of  their  mother,  who  died  of  consump- 
tion when  Sarah  was  five  years  old.  ^Life,  in  a  phy- 
sical aspect,  was  a  hard  struggle  with  the  sisters,  and 
in  her  sore  trials  Sarah  gave  expression  of  her  heart's 
desire  in  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee.  They  were  lov- 
ingly devoted  to  each  other;  and  Eliza  wore  herself 
out  in  her  constant  care  of  Sarah  who  passed  through 
a  long  and  severe  illness.  And  in  turn,  Sarah,  in 
her  intense  devotion  to  Eliza  during  many  months 
of  suffering,  over-taxed  her  powers.  Eliza  was  the 
first  to  yield  to  the  disease  for  which  there  was  no 
cure,  and  peacefully  fell  asleep  in  1846;  and  two 
years  later,  "angels  beckoned"  to  Sarah,  and  the 
prayer  of  her  immortal  hymn  was  answered. 

An  unusual  interest  lies  in  the  fact  that  hymns 


178  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

of  deep  spirituality  like  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
touch  the  heart  of  mankind  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Professors  Hitchcock,  Smith,  and  Park  of  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  visited  Palestine  in  1871;  and 
one  day  when  they  were  winding  round  the  foot  of 
Mt.  Lebanon,  they  were  startled  by  the  strains  of 
the  beautiful  tune,  Bethany.  At  first  they  could 
hardly  believe  their  own  ears;  but  as  they  rode  a 
little  farther  on  they  saw  fifty  Syrian  students 
standing  in  a  circle  in  a  small  grove,  singing  in  full 
chorus  an  Arabic  translation  of  Nearer,  my  God,  to 
Thee.  In  describing  the  impressive  event,  Professor 
Hitchcock  said  he  was  not  much  given  to  the  weeping 
mood,  but  when  he  rode  through  the  ranks  of  the 
Syrian  youths  after  hearing  that  hymn,  he  could 
not  restrain  the  tears.  He  confessed  that  the  singing 
on  that  occasion  seemed  to  go  deeper  into  the  heart 
than  any  he  had  ever  before  heard  in  his  ministry. 

Among  the  many  pathetic  scenes  witnessed  at  the 
Johnstown  flood,  on  the  thirty-first  day  of  May,  1889, 
was  the  total  wrecking  of  a  day  express  train.  In 
the  rear  coach  was  a  lady  on  her  way  to  the  mis- 
sionary fields  in  the  far  East.  The  coach  was  swung 
with  tremendous  violence  into  the  mighty  rushing 
flood,  and  turned  up  on  end.  In  the  lower  part  was 
this  heroic  woman,  fastened  between  two  seats,  un- 
able to  escape  death  in  the  catastrophe.  She  was 
seen  by  a  vast  multitude,  but  between  her  and  assist- 
ance was  an  impassable  deluge.  Prom  her  awful  posi- 
tion she  made  a  most  beautiful  address  of  trust  and 


NEARER,   MY  GOD,  TO  THEE.  179 

peace,  which  was  followed  by  a  prayer,  after  which 
she  began  to  sing  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee.  In  this 
6he  was  joined  in  loving  sympathy  by  the  many  hun- 
dreds who  saw  her  distressing  condition;  and  the 
real  meaning  of  the  hymn  must  have  been  brought 
out  to  its  fullest  extent  in  that  fateful  hour.  In  a 
very  few  minutes  the  song  begun  amid  the  rushing  of 
the  swelling  flood,  was  finished  beyond  the  skies. 

There  were  numerous  impressive  events  in  the 
Boston  Peace  Jubilee  of  1872,  but  none  was  more 
truly  touching  than  the  singing  of  the  fervent  words 
of  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  to  Lowell  Mason's 
Bethany,  arranged,  largely,  from  one  of  Sir  John 
Andrew  Stevenson's  popular  Irish  melodies.  The 
baton,  for  that  day,  was  in  the  master  hand  of  Dr. 
Eben  Tourjee.  The  first  stanza  was  sung  by  the 
Bouquet  of  Artists,  the  second  by  the  great  chorus, 
and  the  third  and  fourth  by  the  choristers  and  the 
audience.  Nearly  fifty  thousand  voices  were  lifted 
in  that  sublime  song.  "The  venerable  composer  of 
the  tune  was  in  the  audience,  an  honored  guest, 
and  his  soul  must  have  been  thrilled  as  it  never 
before  had  been  by  the  grand  outburst  of  noble 
melody." 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  being  pathetically  as- 
sociated with  the  tragic  death  of  President  McKinley, 
has  been  given  a  more  general  recognition  than  was 
ever  accorded  any  other  hymn  in  the  language.  He 
was  a  reverent  and  worshipful  man,  and  had  an  abid- 
ing love  for  this  hymn.     He  was  suffering  the  acme 


180  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

of  human  pain,  and  just  before  he  uttered  his  last 
words  as  taken  down  by  Dr.  Mann:  "Good-by;  it  is 
God's  way;  His  will  be  done,  not  ours" — he  was  heard 
to  murmur  faintly:  "Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee." 
On  the  Sunday  following  his  death  the  hymn  was 
sung  in  unison  of  heart  by  great  congregations  in 
thousands  of  churches;  and  on  Thursday  the  day  of 
the  burial  at  Canton,  memorial  services  were  held  in 
every  civilized  country  in  Christendom,  and  the  hymn 
which  had  been  the  prayer  of  Mr.  McKinley's  life, 
was  made  the  prayer  of  many  millions  of  sorrowful 
hearts.  It  was  sung  alike  by  .worshippers  in  Catho- 
lic Cathedrals  and  Protestant  Churches;  and  by  com- 
mand of  King  Edward,  a  memorial  service  was  held 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  in  that  strangely  his- 
toric place  the  tender  lines  of  the  President's  favorite 
assemblage. 

The  story  of  this  hymn  shows  how  strong  it  lays 
hold  of  the  hearts  of  martyrs  to  suffering.  A  most 
affecting  incident  is  that  of  the  little  drummer  boy 
who  was  with  General  Grant's  army  at  the  battle  of 
Fort  Donelson,  in  February,  1862.  He  was  found 
dying,  one  arm  having  been  carried  away  by  a  can- 
non ball.  The  young  soldier  suffered  much,  but 
he  found  consolation  in  his  last  hours  in  singing 
some  of  the  lines  of  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee. 

I  cannot  concur  with  Mr.  Stead  when  he  speaks 
of  "jealous  Trinitarians"  feeling  twinges  of  conscience 
at  the  thought  of  deriving  spiritual  benefit  from  a 
Unitarian    hymn.     When    Christians    of    whatever 


NEARER,   MY  GOD,   TO   THEE.  181 

name  sing  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  they  do  not 
trouble  themselves  about  Mrs.  Adams  being  a  Uni- 
tarian; for  every  one  of  us,  every  day  of  our  lives, 
needs  the  prayer  and  the  spiritual  touch  of  just  such 
a  hymn  as  this.  It  teaches  us  that  there  are  no 
sects  in  hymns.  "It  is  the  theology  of  the  head 
that  splits  men  asunder"  and  drives  them  to  dispu- 
tations. It  is  the  theology  of  the  heart,  such  as  we 
find  in  sacred  songs,  that  unites  them  and  makes 
them  sing  as  one  man. 

An  incident  of  thrilling  interest  that  illustrates 
how  sacred  songs  obliterate  all  denominational  lines, 
was  the  union  of  the  Old  and  the  New  School  divi- 
sions of  the  Presbyterian  Church  which  took  place 
at  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  in  November,  1869.  The 
two  bodies  formed  in  parallel  columns  in  the  street, 
and  coming  together,  they  locked  arms  and  marched 
to  the  Church  where  the  bond  of  union  was  to  be 
sealed.  As  they  entered  the  Church  the  vast  assem- 
bly rose  and  all  joined  in  singing  that  inspiring  jubi- 
lee song,  Blow  ye  the  Trumpet  Blow.  When  the 
delegates  were  seated,  then  followed  that  triumphant 
ascription  of  praise,  All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus' 
Name.  And  during  that  wonderful  scene  the  dis- 
tinguished body  of  ministers  and  the  great  audience, 
moved  by  the  spirit  of  Christian  unity,  sang  in  the 
order  of  service,  Blest  be  the  Sons  of  Peace;  the  sub- 
lime Doxology,  Praise  God  Prom  Whom  all  Blessings 
Flow;  and  finally  the  beautiful  expression  of  Chris- 
tian fellowship,  Blest  be  the  Tie  that  Binds.    Prob- 


182  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

ably  the  thought  never  entered  the  heads  of  these 
Presbyterian  ministers  in  this  hour  of  supreme 
gladness,  that  of  the  hymns  they  sang  that  day,  not 
one  of  them  was  written  by  a  member  of  their  own 
denomination.  And  when  the  General  Assembly 
met  at  Saratoga,  New  York,  in  1894,  it  sang  the 
same  five  hymns  which  so  fittingly  expressed  the 
spirit  of  gratitude  and  praise  of  the  Assembly  at 
Pittsburg  twenty-five  years  before.  A  richer  example 
of  how  sacred  song  appeals  to  the  common  heart  of 
mankind,  and  lays  low  in  the  dust  all  sectarianism, 
is  not  found  in  the  history  of  our  hymnology. 

It  is  said  that  Kobert  Browning  indirectly 
inspired  Mrs.  Adams's  hymn.  He  was  her  junior 
by  seven  years,  and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  he  mani- 
fested a  warm  interest  in  her  literary  aspirations. 
A  few  years  later  her  faith  became  much  disturbed, 
possibly  on  account  of  ill-health,  for  we  all  know 
that  the  body  often  rules  the  mind.  And  again, 
to  one  whose  hopes  are  no  higher  than  earth,  the 
lessons  of  sorrow  are  indeed  hard  to  learn.  It  was 
at  such  a  time  as  this,  perhaps,  that  Browning's 
influence  over  her  revived  and  confirmed  her  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  thereby  made  it  possible  for  her  to 
sing  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee. 


XXII. 

riy  Faith  Looks  Up  to  Thee. 

N  1899  The  Congregationalist  printed  this 
note:  "When  Dr.  Herrick  was  asked  what 
Congregationalism  had  done  for  hymnol- 
ogy,  he  replied  that  he  was  willing  to  rest  its  reputa- 
tion on  four  hymns,  not  to  mention  more,  namely: 
Timothy  Dwight's,  I  Love  Thy  Kingdom,  Lord;  Eay 
Palmer's,  My  Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee;  Leonard 
Bacon's,  0  God,  Beneath  Thy  Guiding  Hand;  and 
Washington  Gladden's,  0  Master,  Let  Me  Walk  with 
Thee."  This  is  surely  a  group  of  splendid  hymns. 
But  there  is  one  among  them  that  stands  out  above 
all  the  others  in  the  affection  with  which  it  is  held 
by  the  Christian  Church.  My  Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee, 
is  no  doubt  sung  oftener  than  any  other  American 
hymn.  It  is  so  great  a  hymn  that  Dr.  Horder  of 
London,  whose  fame  as  a  hymnologist  is  trans-conti- 
nental, says:  "Dr.  Eay  Palmer  is  the  most  widely 
known  and  deeply-loved  hymnist  of  America." 

The  author  of  this  universal  song  was  the  son 
of  Judge  Thomas  Palmer,  and  was  born  at  Little 
Crompton,  Ehode  Island,  in  1808.  He  spent  several 
years  of  his  early  life  as  a  clerk  in  a  dry-goods  store 
in  Boston.  He  devoted  three  years  to  study  at  Phil- 
lips Academy,  Andover,  and  afterwards  took  a  course 
of  study  at  Yale,  and  was  graduated  in  1830.    After 


184  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

filling  Congregational  pastorates  at  Bath,  Maine,  and 
Albany,  New  York,  he  accepted  the  office  of  Cor- 
responding Secretary  of  the  American  Congrega- 
tional Union  in  1865,  and  held  the  office  till  1878, 
when  he  retired  on  account  of  ill-health,  to  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  where  he  died  in  1887. 

Dr.  Palmer  regarded,  Jesus,  These  Eyes  Have 
Never  Seen,  as  his  best  production;  and  the  last 
words  he  uttered  were  from  that  hymn.  On  the 
day  before  he  passed  away,  he  was  heard  to  "faintly 
murmur  to  himself,"  the  stanza, 

When  death  these  mortal  eyes  shall  seal, 

And  still  this  throbbing  heart, 
The  rending  veil  shall  Thee  reveal 

All  glorious  as  Thou  art. 

When  Dr.  Palmer  was  in  New  York  city  in  1830, 
teaching  in  a  young  ladies'  school,  he  read  a  descrip- 
tion in  German,  of  only  two  stanzas,  of  a  suppliant 
before  the  Cross.  His  heart  was  touched  by  the  tender 
beauty  of  the  lines,  and  he  made  a  translation.  He 
also  added  four  stanzas,  telling  what  the  suppliant 
was  saying,  and  these  stanzas  form  that  ever  lovable 
hymn  by  which  the  memory  of  its  author  is  most 
closely  linked,  not  only  to  the  hearts  of  his  own 
countrymen,  but  to  the  hearts  of  Christians  in  all 
countries  of  the  globe: 

My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee, 
Thou  Lamb  of  Calvary, 

Savior  divine: 
Now  hear  me  while  I  pray, 
Take  all   my  guilt   away, 
O  let  me  from  this  day 

Be  wholly  Thine! 


MY   FAITH   LOOKS    UP   TO    THEE.  185 

May  thy  rich  grace  impart 
Strength  to  my  fainting  heart, 

My  zeal  inspire! 
As  Thou  hast  died  for  me, 
0  may  my  love  to  Thee 
Pure,  warm,  and  changeless  be, 

A  living  fire! 

While  life's  dark  maze  I  tread, 
And  griefs  around  me  spread, 

Be  Thou  my  Guide; 
Bid  darkness  turn  to  day, 
Wipe  sorrow's  tears  iaway, 
Nor  let  me  ever  stray 

From  Thee  aside. 

When  ends  life's  transient  dream, 
When  death's  cold,  sullen  stream 

Shall  o'er  me  roll; 
Blest  Savior,  then,  in  love, 
Fear  and  distrust  remove; 
0  bear  me  safe  above, 

A  ransomed  soul! 

The  doctor  was  once  asked  to  give  the  origin  of 
this  hymn  of  nameless  charm,  and  he  said  it  was 
simply  this:  "I  wrote  what  I  felt,  with  little  effort. 
I  recollect  I  penned  the  words  with  tender  emotion, 
and  ended  the  last  line  with  tears.  It  expressed  the 
deep  consciousness  of  my  own  need.  I  had  not  the 
slightest  thought  of  writing  for  another  eye,  least 
of  all,  of  writing  a  hymn  for  Christian  worship." 
The  fact  should  be  recalled  that  the  hymn  was  writ- 
ten when  Palmer  was  only  twenty-two  years  old.  He 
was  in  poor  health,  and  was  laboring  under  many 
discouragements;  and  this  explains  his  statement  con- 


186  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

cerning  the  hymn:  "It  was  born  in  my  heart  and 
demanded  expression." 

The  popular  account  of  the  first  publication  of 
the  hymn  in  the  United  States,  is,  that  about  two 
years  after  it  was  written,  Mr.  Palmer  met  Dr.  Low- 
ell Mason  on  a  street  in  Boston,  when  the  composer 
remarked  that  he  was  engaged  in  compiling  a  Church 
music  book,  and  requested  him  to  furnish  some  lines 
for  the  work.  Mr.  Palmer  then  thought  of  the  hymn 
he  had  written  over  two  years  before,  and  took  it 
from  his  pocket,  and  when  Dr.  Mason  read  it  he 
made  the  prophetic  remark  that  the  hymn  would  be 
sung  around  the  world;  and  he  ventured  another 
prophecy,  that  whatever  great  things  Mr.  Palmer 
might  do  in  his  lifetime,  his  fame  would  still  rest 
upon  that  hynm.  Dr.  Mason  composed  Olivet  for 
the  hymn,  and  to  this  setting  the  words  are  sung 
in  all  gospel  lands. 

Professor  Austin  Phelps,  father  of  Elizabeth  Stu- 
art Phelps  Ward,  when  speaking  of  the  singular 
conditions  that  sometimes  start  a  hymn  around  the 
globe,  says:  "One  of  those  fleeting  conjunctions  of 
circumstances  and  men!  The  doctor  of  music  and 
future  doctor  of  theology  are  thrown  together  in  the 
roaring  thoroughfare  of  commerce  for  a  brief  inter- 
view, scarcely  more  than  enough  for  a  morning  salu- 
tation; and  the  sequence  is  the  publication  of  a 
Christian  lyric  which  is  to  be  sung  around  the  world." 

The  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  marriage  of  Dr. 
Palmer  to  Miss  Ann  M.  Ward  of  New  York,  was 


MY   FAITH   LOOKS    UP    TO    THEE.  187 

celebrated  in  1882.  Some  of  the  greatest  minds  in 
the  land  attended  the  golden  wedding,  and  among 
these  who  spoke  words  befitting  the  delightful  occa- 
sion was  the  late  Dr.  Kichard  S.  Storrs,  who  said: 
aThe  grandest  privilege  which  God  ever  gives  to  His 
children  upon  earth,  and  which  He  gives  to  compar- 
atively few,  is  to  write  a  noble  Christian  hymn,  to 
be  accepted  by  the  Churches,  to  be  sung  by  reverent 
and  loving  hearts  in  different  lands  and  different 
tongues,  and  which  still  shall  be  sung  as  the  future 
opens  its  brightening  centuries.  Such  a  hymn  brings 
him  to  whom  it  is  given  into  most  intimate  sym- 
pathy with  the  Master,  and  with  the  more  sensitive 
and  devout  spirits  of  every  time." 

In  connection  with  the  spiritual  use  of  the  hymn, 
this  story,  though  old,  is  still  interesting.  Mrs.  Lay- 
yath  Baraket,  a  native  of  Syria,  who  was  educated  in 
the  mission  schools  at  Beirut,  went  as  a  teacher  to 
Egypt,  where  she  made  much  use  of  My  Faith  Looks 
up  to  Thee.  By  the  insurrection  of  Arabi  Pasha  in 
1882,  she  was  driven  out  of  that  country,  and  with 
her  husband  and  child  came  to  the  United  States. 
"Her  history  is  a  strange  illustration  of  God's  provi- 
dential care,  as  they  were  without  any  friends  in  Phil- 
adelphia, where  they  landed."  During  her  visit  in 
America  Mrs.  Baraket  made  many  public  addresses 
and  attracted  large  audiences.  Her  talks  on  mission- 
ary efforts  in  Syria  and  Egypt  were  rich  in  practical 
and  interesting  incidents  and  illustrations.  She  had 
been  permitted  to  see  her  whole  family,  who  were 


188  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Maronites  of  Mt.  Lebanon,  converted  to  Christianity. 
Her  mother,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two,  was  taught  to 
sing  an  Arabic  translation  of  Dr.  Palmer's  hymn; 
and  in  1884,  when  she  received  the  news  that  her 
daughter  had  reached  the  United  States  in  safety 
and  was  kindly  received,  she  responded  by  simply 
repeating  the  words  of  this  hymn. 

In  the  evening  before  one  of  the  terrible  battles 
of  the  Wilderness  during  the  Civil  War,  eight  young 
men  who  were  warmly  attached  to  each  other  by  the 
ties  of  Christian  comradeship,  held  a  prayer-meeting. 
A  great  battle  was  imminent,  and  it  seemed  improb- 
able that  all  of  them  would  survive  the  conflict. 
Before  separating  for  the  night,  they  wrote  an  expres- 
sion of  their  feelings  on  a  sheet  of  paper.  It  was 
in  fact,  a  death  pledge;  and  was  to  remain  as  evi- 
dence of  their  Christian  faith  should  they  fall  in 
battle.  The  words  to  which  all  the  brave  young 
men  subscribed  their  names  were  those  of  the  hymn, 
My  Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee.  The  battle  on  the  mor- 
row went  hard  with  the  regiment  to  which  these 
eight  soldiers  of  the  Cross  and  the  Union  belonged, 
and  seven  of  them  fell  before  the  blazing  discharge 
of  shot  and  shell  of  the  enemy. 

Dr.  Palmer  wrote  many  hymns,  and  although  he 
produced  nothing  else  that  equals  that  on  faith, 
several  of  them  are  extensively  used  in  this  country 
and  Great  Britain.  Some  of  his  translations  have 
gained  international  fame.  The  finest  English  ren- 
dering of  the  beautiful  hymn  by  Gregory  the  Great, 


RAY   PALMKR. 


MY   FAITH   LOOKS    UP   TO    THEE.  189 

0  Christ,  our  King,  Creator,  Lord,  was  made  by  Dr. 

Palmer. 

There   is  another   translation   that   stands   as   a 

perpetual  "memorial  of  Dr.    Palmer's    genius    and 

taste."    Archbishop  Trench  says  the  loveliest  hymn 

in  all  the   range   of  Latin   sacred  poetry,   is   Veni 

Sancte  Spiritus.    He  also  says  that  it  could  only  have 

been  composed  by  one  "who  had  been  acquainted 

with  many  sorrows  and  also  with  many  consolations." 

In  1858  Dr.  Palmer  took  this  charming  Latin  hymn 

in  hand  and  made  a  translation  that  has  been  placed 

in  nearly  all  American  and  English  hymnals.    Here 

is  the  hymn  in  full: 

Come,  Holy  Ghost,  in  love, 
Shed  on  us  from  above 

Thine  own  bright  ray! 
Divinely  good  Thou  art; 
Thy  sacred  gifts  impart 
To  gladden  each  sad  heart: 

0  come  to-day! 

Come,   tenderest  Friend,  and  best, 
Our  most  delightful  Guest, 

With  soothing  power: 
Rest,  which  the  weary  know, 
Shade,  'mid  the  noontide  glow, 
Peace,  when  deep  griefs  o'erflow. 

Cheer  us,  this  hour! 

Come,  Light  serene,  and  still 
Our  inmost  bosoms  fill; 

Dwell  in  each  breast: 
We  know  no  dawn  but  Thine, 
Send  forth  Thy  beams  divine, 
On  our  dark  souls  to  shine, 

And  make  us  blest! 


190  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Exalt  our  low  desires; 
Extinguish  passion's  fires; 

Heal  every  wound: 
Our  stubborn  spirits  bend, 
Our  icy  coldness  end, 
Our  devious  steps  attend, 

While  heavenward  bound. 

Come,  all  the  faithful  bless; 
Let  all  who  Christ  confess 

His  .praise  employ: 
Give  virtue's  rich  reward; 
Victorious  death  accord, 
And,  with  our  glorious  Lord, 

Eternal  joy! 

Dr.  Palmer's  splendid  version  has  done  much  to 
deepen  the  interest  in  this  great  hymn.  There  are 
but  few  finer  alliances  of  words  and  music  found  in 
any  hymnal  than  these  magnificent  lines  set  to 
Thomas  Hastings's  New  Haven.  The  hymn  is  ren- 
dered in  the  same  meter  as  My  Faith  Looks  up  to 
Thee,  and  when  sung  to  that  tune  it  becomes  one 
of  the  richest  tones  of  the  Church. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  whose  sorrows 
and  consolations  gave  the  Church  Veni  Sancte  Spir- 
itus.  Whose  voice  first  sang  it?  What  were  the 
motives  that  craved  it?  For  ages  it  was  supposed  to 
have  been  written  by  Eobert  II.  of  France  about 
1020.  Others  believe  it  came  from  the  sorrowful 
heart  of  Hermannus  Contractus,  the  cripple,  in  1040. 
There  are  those  who  give  the  authorship  to  Stephen 
Langton,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  say  that 
he  wrote  it  not  far  from  1215.     Some  later  authori- 


MY   FAITH   LOOKS    UP    TO    THEE.  191 

ties  ascribe  it  to  Pope  Innocent  III.,  who  died  in 
1216. 

There  are  many  pleasing  incidents  clustering 
around  these  time-honored  hymns  whose  origin  is 
involved  in  mystery.  The  memorable  discussion 
between  Martin  Luther  and  Johann  Eck,  on  the 
general  power  of  the  Pope,  began  at  Leipsic  on  the 
twenty-seventh  of  June,  and  concluded  on  the  six- 
teenth of  July,  1519.  It  was  the  greatest  gathering 
of  theologians  and  dignitaries  ever  seen  in  Germany. 
Luther  was  one  great  whirlwind  of  energy,  and 
totally  insensible  to  fear.  Eck  was  backed  by  the 
Church,  and  known  as  the  "Goliath  of  controversy." 
The  famous  disputation  settled  nothing;  but  one 
incident  of  that  brilliant  occasion  still  shines  out 
above  the  masterful  orations  of  these  two  men.  After 
the  proceedings  had  begun  with  a  Latin  oration,  the 
august  assembly  fell  on  its  knees,  and  solemnly 
chanted  Veni  Sancte  Spiritus.  The  powerful  argu- 
ments of  Germany's  two  greatest  orators  excited  par- 
tisan strife  and  hate;  but  the  sweet  little  hymn  of  an 
unknown  singer  touched  a  common  heart,  and  for  the 
moment  it  did  what  nothing  else  could — softened 
the  asperities  of  the  hour. 


XXIII. 

The  Voice  From  Galilee. 

HEEE  is  no  more  honored  name  in  Church 
hymnody  of  the  nineteenth  century  than 
that  of  Horatius  Bonar.  His  hymns  are 
among  the  sweet  minor  tones  that  are  yearly  grow- 
ing in  the  love  of  the  Church.  He  was  born  in 
Edinburgh  in  1808.  His  first  pastorate  in  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  Scotland  was  begun  at  Kelso  in 
1837.  When  the  disruption  of  1843  came  he  cast 
his  lot  with  the  Free  Church,  but  remained  at  Kelso 
till  1866,  when  he  was  translated  to  the  Chambers 
Memorial  Church  at  Edinburgh  where  he  served 
until  his  death  in  1889. 

There  is  wonderment  in  the  fact  that  no  memoir 
of  Dr.  Bonar  has  been  written.  He  was  a  very  mod- 
est and  reticent  man,  and  had  a  dread  of  popularity. 
His  daughter,  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Marcus  Dodds, 
Mrs.  Mary  Benar  Dodds,  tells  us  that  her  father  never 
dreamed  of  winning  poetic  fame;  and  it  is  passing 
strange  that  his  hymns,  which  are  so  numerous  and 
many  of  them  so  divinely  graceful,  have  no  known 
history.  When  hjs  son  was  questioned  about  the 
story  of  certain  hymns  his  father  had  written,  he 
said  there  was  no  publication,  or  authentic  record 
of  any  sort,  giving  an  account  of  their  origin  or  his- 
tory. 


THE    VOICE   FROM    GALILEE.  193 

But  Mrs.  Dodds  says  his  first  hymns  were  com- 
posed for  Sunday  School  children,  and  it  was  in 
the  quiet  of  Kelso  that  the  greater  number,  and 
perhaps  the  best  and  sweetest  of  his  hymns  were 
written.  She  also  adds  that  when  her  father  settled 
in  Edinburgh  he  wrote  some  good  hymns  in  con- 
nection with  the  new  effort  made  by  Moody  and 
Sankey,  and  others,  to  "sing  the  gospel,"  and  these 
are  included  in  the  hymn-books  used  at  evangelical 
meetings. 

Dr.  Bonar  will  be  best  known  and  beloved  as  the 
author  of  Hymns  of  Faith  and  Hope.  In  that  volume 
is  found  the  beautiful  hymn,  The  Voice  from  Gali- 
lee, which  has  carried  his  name  wherever  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  spoken: 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say, 

"Come  unto  me  and  rest; 
Lay  down,  thou  weary  one,  lay  down 

Thy  head  upon  My  breast." 
I   came   to   Jesus  as   I   was, 

Weary  and  worn  and  sad, 
I   found   in   Him    a   resting-place, 

And  He  has  made  me  glad. 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say, 

"Behold,   I  freely  give 
The  living  water;  thirsty  one, 

Stoop  down  and  drink,  and  live." 
I   came   to   Jesus,    and   I   drank 

Of   that   life-giving   stream, 
My  thirst  was  quenched,  my  soul  revived, 

And  now  I  live  in  Him. 


194  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say, 

"I  am  this   dark  world's   light, 
Look  unto  Me,  thy  morn  shall  rise, 

And   all   thy   day  be   bright." 
I  looked  to  Jesus,  and  I  found 

In  Him  my  Star,  my  Sun; 
And  in  that  light  of  life  I'll  walk, 

Till  traveling  days  are  done. 

This  is  the  most  popular  of  all  Dr.  Bonar's  hymns. 
It  is  said  to  be  most  often  sung  or  whispered  by  those 
who  seek  solace  or  inspiration.  It  is  a  good  specimen 
of  what  may  be  called  "the  subjective  class  of  hymns, 
that  is,  hymns  dealing  with  the  inner  life  and  experi- 
ence of  the  worshiper.  Those  hymns  that  celebrate 
the  perfections  of  God  and  the  glories  of  Eedemp- 
tion,  are  properly  objective  in  their  character,  and 
for  long  centuries  were,  with  few  exceptions,  the  only 
hymns  known  to  the  Church.  But  in  these  later  days 
hymns  of  a  subjective  kind — dealing  with  the  human 
heart,  its  hopes  and  fears,  its  joys  and  sorrows,  its 
faith  and  failures,  often  taking  the  form  of  confes- 
sion and  prayer — are  now  common." 

This  hymn  is  pathetically  associated  with  the 
final  hours  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  He  preached 
his  last  sermon  in  Plymouth  Church  on  Sunday  even- 
ing, March  sixth,  1887.  At  the  close  of  the  service 
he  lingered  in  the  church  to  hear  his  choir  sing  a 
beautiful  anthem  to  the  words, 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus, 
"Come  unto  me  and  rest." 

To  Mr.  Beecher  this  hymn  seems  to  have  had  a  pecu- 


THE    VOICE   FROM    GALILEE.  195 

liar  charm;  and  it  was  the  last  song  he  heard  in  his 
church.  On  the  next  Tuesday  he  rested  from  the 
labors  which  had  been  for  fifty  years  an  immeasur- 
able blessing  to  the  thousands  who  heard  him  preach 
with  marvelous  power  the  gospel  of  truth  and  mercy 
and  loving  kindness  proclaimed  by  the  Voice  from 
Galilee.  Mr.  Beecher  received  personal  inspiration 
from  song.  He  once  said:  "I  have  never  loved  men 
under  any  circumstances  as  I  have  loved  them  when 
singing  with  them.  Never  at  any  other  time  have 
I  been  so  near  Heaven  with  you  as  in  those  hours 
when  we  were  singing  of  Heaven,  and  our  songs  were 
being  wafted  thitherward." 

When  set  to  proper  music  The  Voice  from  Gali- 
lee is  an  inspiring  force.  Here  is  an  incident  which 
illustrates  its  popularity.  All  the  newspapers  in 
Montreal  made  special  announcement  that  at  Christ's 
Church  Cathedral  on  the  second  Sunday  evening  in 
September,  1887,  the  choir  would  sing  this  hymn  to 
music  composed  by  G.  Couture.  The  words  were 
intended  to  magnify  the  service.  The  great  Cathe- 
dral appreciated  the  thorough  merit,  the  loving  senti- 
ment, and  the  peculiar  suitableness  of  the  hymn  to 
solemn,  yet  helpful,  Church  worship,  and  used  it  in 
a  way  that  made  the  service  deeply  interesting,  note- 
worthy, and  impressive. 

Dr.  Bonar  thought  that  his  best  hymn  is,  When 
the  Weary  Seeking  Eest;  but  equal  to  his  favorite 
are,  A  few  More  Years  shall  Roll;  Upward  where  the 
Stars  are  Burning;  Come,  Lord,  and  Tarry  Not;  and 


196  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

many  others,  among  them  being  those  less  familiar 
but  exquisite  and  tender  lines, 

Beyond  the  smiling  and   the  weeping, 

I  shall  be  soon; 
Beyond   the  waking  and  the  sleeping, 
Beyond  the  sowing  and  the  reaping, 

I  shall  be  soon. 
Refrain — Love,  rest,  and  home! 

Sweet,  sweet  home! 

Lord,   tarry  not,   but   come. 

Dr.  Julian,  in  summing  up  Bonar's  contributions 
to  Church  song,  says:  "His  hymns  satisfy  the  fastidi- 
ous by  their  instinctive  good  taste;  they  mirror  the 
life  of  Christ  in  the  soul,  partially,  perhaps,  but  with 
vivid  accuracy;  they  win  the  heart  by  their  tone  of 
tender  sympathy;  they  sing  the  truth  of  God  in  ring- 
ing notes;  and  although,  when  taken  as  a  whole,  they 
are  not  perfect;  although,  in  reading  them,  we  meet 
with  feeble  stanzas,  defective  rhyme,  meaningless 
iteration;  yet  a  singularly  large  number  have  been 
stamped  with  approval,  both  in  literary  circles  and 
by  the  Church." 

It  is  a  singular  circumstance  that  Dr.  Bonar's 
hymns  were  sung  for  many  years  in  the  Church  of 
England,  and  othej  sections  of  the  Christian  Church 
in  America  and  Great  Britain,  before  his  own  Church 
would  permit  them  to  be  used.  His  own  General 
Assembly  preferred  the  Scottish  Psalms  and  Para- 
phrases to  the  "human  hymns"  made  by  Bonar. 
Another  fact  equally  as  peculiar,  is  noted  by  Dr. 
Horder.     Although  Bonar  belonged  to  a  strongly 


HORATIUS  BONAR. 


THE  VOICE  FROM  GALILEE.  197 

Calvinistic  body,  "his  hymns  abound  in  the  most 
ecstatic  assertions  of  the  universal  love  of  God.  Here, 
as  in  so  many  other  cases,  the  heart  is  wiser  than  the 
head — the  poet  than  the  theologian." 

Like  Dwight  L.  Moody  and  many  other  men  of 
God,  Dr.  Bonar  believed  in  the  pre-millenial  coming 
of  Christ.  This  is  clearly  illustrated  in  many  of  his 
finer  hymns.  And  it  has  been  suggested  that  from 
his  "habitual  contemplation  of  the  Second  Advent 
as  the  era  of  this  world's  bliss,  his  hymns  are  dis- 
tinguished by  a  tone  of  pensive  reflection  which 
some  might  call  pessimism." 

Whatever  force  there  may  be  in  this  suggestion, 
Dr.  Bonar's  hymns  have  been  wonderfully  helpful 
to  the  many  thousands  who  have  either  read  or 
sung  them;  and  as  they  not  only  appeal  to  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  uncultured,  but  are  beautiful  poems 
with  the  qualities  inseparable  from  lyrics  of  high 
order,  they  are  sure  to  retain  a  permanent  p]ace  in 
the  hymnals  of  English-speaking  Churches. 


'   XXIV. 
Stand  Up  For  Jesus. 


Anr^S 


HE  two  American  hymns  which  are  best 
known  and  most  frequently  used  are,  My 
Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee;  and  Stand  up, 
Stand  up  for  Jesus.  The  latter  is  not  a  great  hymn 
from  the  view-point  of  literary  grace.  It  is,  however, 
a  felicitous  clarion  song,  and  no  other  composition 
of  American  origin  is  more  commonly  employed  as  a 
mission  hymn  than  the  lines  which,  in  a  sense,  com- 
memorate the  tragic  death  of  Dudley  Atkins  Tyng. 
Its  influence  in  kindling  aspirations  after  a  more 
courageous  and  sincere  Christian  spirit  has  marked 
it  as  one  of  the  fruitful  hymns  of  the  century. 

During  the  great  revival  in  Philadelphia  in  the 
spring  of  1858,  Mr.  Tyng,  Eector  of  the  Church  of 
the  Epiphany  of  that  city,  took  a  deep  interest  in 
that  historic  religious  movement.  He  was  thirty- 
three  years  old,  and  like  his  distinguished  father, 
the  Rev.  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  D.  D.,  was  a  powerful 
preacher  and  full  of  the  evangelistic  spirit.  On 
Sunday,  April  sixteenth,  he  preached  at  a  union 
service  held  in  Jaynes's  hall,  at  which  five  thousand 
people  were  present.  The  sermon  wras  said  to  be  one 
of  the  most  masterful  of  modern  times;  and  fully 
one  thousand  persons  were  converted  on  that  day. 

On  Wednesday  following  that  memorable  Sun- 


STAND    UP    FOR    JESUS.  199 

day,  Mr.  Tyng  left  his  study  for  a  few  moments  and 
went  to  his  barn  where  a  corn-shelling  apparatus  was 
in  operation.  Unconsciously  he  stepped  too  near 
the  machine  and  his  gown  was  caught  in  one  of  the 
wheels,  and  before  assistance  could  reach  him  his 
right  arm  was  frightfully  mangled.  In  the  hope  of 
saving  his  life  the  surgeons  made  three  amputations, 
but  the  injury  was  so  severe  and  the  shock  to  his 
system  so  dreadful,  that  he  died  within  a  few  hours. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  Phil- 
adelphia, gave  its  powerful  support  to  the  Minister's 
Union  in  conducting  the  revival;  and  at  the  moment 
when  Mr.  Tyng  seemed  to  wake  from  the  sleep  of 
death,  his  father  asked  him  if  he  had  any  message 
for  the  Association  and  the  Union,  and  he  whispered 
the  words:  "Tell  them  to  stand  up  for  Jesus."  He 
then  gathered  strength  to  ask  his  father  to  sing  a 
hymn,  and  hardly  waiting  for  others  to  respond,  he 
began  himself  to  sing  some  words  from  Eock  of  Ages; 
but  his  voice  soon  grew  faint;  then  the  stillness  of 
death  came.  "God's  finger  touched  him,  and  he 
slept." 

The  Eev.  George  Duffield,  a  Presbyterian  minis- 
ter of  considerable  note,  held  a  pastorate  in  Phila- 
delphia at  the  time  of  Mr.  Tyng's  death.  On  the 
Sunday  succeeding  the  tragedy,  he  delivered  a  ser- 
mon based  on  the  message  to  the  Association  and 
the  Union,  and  the  following  lines  were  written  sim- 
ply as  a  concluding  exhortation: 


200  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Stand  up,  stand  up  for  Jesus, 

Ye  soldiers  of  the  cross; 
Lift   high  His  royal  banner, 

It  must  no;t  suffer  loss: 
From  victory  unto  victory 

His  army  shall  He  lead, 
Till  every  foe  is  vanquished 

And  Christ  is  Lord  indeed. 

Stand  up! — stand  up  for  Jesus! 

The  solemn  watchword  hear: 
If  while  ye  sleep  He  suffers, 

Away  with  shame  and  fear; 
Where'er  ye  meet  with  evil, 

Within  you  or  without, 
Charge  for  the  God   of  Battles, 

And  put  the  foe  to  rout! 

Stand  up! stand  up  for  Jesus! 
The    trumpet    call    obey; 
Forth  to  the  mighty  conflict, 

In   this  His  glorious  day. 
"Ye  that  are  men  now  serve  Him," 

Against  unnumbered  foes; 
Let  courage  rise  with  danger, 

And  strength  to  strength  oppose. 

Stand  up! — stand  up  for  Jesus! 

Stand  in  His  strength  alone; 
The  arm  of  flesh  will  fail  you; 

Ye  dare  not  trust  your  own: 
Put  on  the  gospel  armor, 

Each  piece  put  on  with  prayer; 
Where  duty  calls,  or  danger, 

Be  never  wanting  there. 

Stand  up!— stand  up  for  Jesus! 

Each  soldier  to  his  post; 
Close  up  the  .broken  column, 

And  shout  through  all  the  host! 


GKORGE   DUFFIELD. 


STAND    UP    FOR    JESUS.  201 

Make  good  the  loss  so  heavy, 

In  those  that   still  remain. 
And  prove  to  all  around  you 

That  death  itself  is  gain! 

Stand  up,  stand  up  for  Jesus, 

The  strife  will  not  be  long; 
This  day  the  noise  of  battle, 

The   next   the   victor's    song: 
To  him  that  overcometh, 

A  crown  of  life  shall  be; 
He  with  the  King  of  glory 

Shall  reign  eternally. 

The  sentiment  of  the  message  as  expressed  in 
Dr.  Duffield's  verse  was  caught  up  as  on  the  "wings 
of  heaven"  and  borne  over  all  this  broad  land,  and 
even  beyond  the  seas.  He  says  the  hymn  was  first 
printed  as  a  fly-leaf  for  the  Sunday  School  connected 
with  his  Church.  A  stray  copy  found  its  way  into 
a  Baptist  paper,  and  from  that  publication  the 
hymn  passed,  either  in  its  English,  or  in  translated 
forms,  all  over  the  world.  The  doctor  says  the  first 
time  he  heard  it  sung  outside  of  his  own  denomina- 
tion was  in  1864,  when  it  seemed  to  become  the 
favorite  song  of  many  soldiers  in  the  army  of  the 
Potomac. 

A  pleasant  little  incident  associated  with  this 
hymn  is  found  in  the  story  of  "the  four-year-old 
child  of  the  Eev.  Dr.  Eoberts  of  Princeton,  New 
Jersey,  who  hearing  it  given  out  in  Church  sang  it 
fearlessly  and  to  the  admiration  of  the  congregation. 
Moreover,  the  singing  was  with  a  loud  voice  and 
great  joy,  as  if  'something  understood/     It  was  at 


202  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Saratoga,  and  the  child  was  far  from  home,  but 
the  hymn  was  real  and  familiar,  and  the  little  voice 
made  melody  in  it." 

An  anonymous  writer  pays  Dr.  Duffield's  hymn 
this  merited  tribute:  "Strange  that  a  short  hymn, 
struck  off  in  an  hour  or  two  as  a  fitting  peroration  to 
a  funeral  sermon  on  a  young  minister  who  had  come 
to  a  tragic  end,  should  be  so  honored  as  to  cast  all  the 
author's  other  works  into  the  shade.  What  are  all 
his  other  works  compared  to  this  martial  song  so 
hastily  written,  so  strangely  born?  When  all  his 
other  works  shall  have  been  forgotten,  when  the 
walls  of  the  grand  churches  to  which  he  ministered 
for  so  many  years  have  fallen,  this  noble  lyric,  writ- 
ten in  the  white  heat  of  a  grand  elate  hour,  will  be 
a  power  in  the  land,  because  fragrant  with  the  name 
of  Dudley  Tyng,  and  still  more  with  that  Name 
which  is  above  every  name  in  heaven  or  on  earth." 


XXV. 

One  Sweetly  Solemn  Thought. 

yTjEVEKAL  years  ago  The  New  York  Observer 
offered  a  prize  to  the  person  who  would 
name  the  best  fifty  hymns  of  American 
origin.  Of  the  many  thousands  who  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  compete  for  the  prize,  only  seven  hundred 
responded.  The  hymn  that  received  the  highest  num- 
ber of  votes  was  My  Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee,  and  One 
Sweetly  Solemn  Thought  stood  second.  The  late 
Dr.  Charles  S.  Kobinson,  who  did  much  to  improve 
our  hymnology,  was  greatly  surprised  that  Miss 
Cary's  poem  should  be  considered  the  second  best  of 
all  American  hymns;  and  in  a  communication  to  The 
Observer,  he  says:  "One  Sweetly  Solemn  Thought, 
is  an  exquisite  poem  for  private  reading,  but  in  its 
original  form  it  is  of  no  sort  of  metre — irregular  to 
the  last  degree  of  impossibility  in  setting  to  music, 
and  marred  terribly  by  the  tinkering  it  has  had  to 
receive  to  get  it  into  the  collection.  Think  of  five 
hundred  ordinary  Sabbath  worshipers  singing,  'One 
sweetly  solemn  thought  comes  to  me  again  and  again 
that  I  am  nearer  being  dead  to-day  than  ever  I  was 
before/  It  is  a  poem  of  wonderful  beauty,  but  is  it 
our  second  hymn?" 

Possibly  Dr.  Eobinson  is  partly  right  in  his  judg- 
ment   as  to  the  merit    of    One    Sweetly    Solemn 


204  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Thought,  as  a  hymn,  but  he  seems  to  have  forgotten 
the  fact  that  it  has  made  more  history  than  many 
other  American  hymns  of  greater  literary  purity. 
People  judge  hymns  largely  by  the  way  they  stir  the 
heart;  and  no  doubt  the  four  hundred  and  seven 
persons  who  believed  that  Miss  Cary's  hymn  was  the 
second  among  the  so-called  best  fifty  American 
hymns,  had  found  more  spiritual  comfort  in  it  than 
in  any  other  native  composition  with  the  exception 
of  My  Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee. 

Alice  and  Phoebe  Cary  were  born  in  a  small 
farm-house  in  the  Miami  Valley,  eight  miles  north 
of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  1820  and  1824,  respectively. 
Even  from  their  young  girlhood  their  tastes  were 
literary.  It  is  not  inapt  to  call  them  the  Bethany 
Sisters  of  American  literature.  They  settled  in  New 
York  in  1852;  and  in  the  joint  house-keeping  Phoebe 
took,  from  choice,  the  larger  share  of  the  household 
duties,  and  found  less  leisure  for  literary  work  than 
Alice  who  was  an  invalid  for  many  years.  But  it  was 
the  house-keeper,  not  the  poet,  that  won  almost 
world-wide  fame  in  one  hymn,  bearing  the  title, 
Nearer  Home. 

On  returning  from  Church  one  Sunday  noon  in 
1852,  Phoebe  went  to  her  room  in  the  third  story 
of  a  modest  brick  building,  and  after  thanking  her 
Heavenly  Father  for  the  gift  of  His  love,  she  wrote 
this  hymn: 


ONE    SWEETLY    SOLEMN    THOUGHT.  205 

One  sweetly  solemn  thought 

Comes  to  me  o'er  and  o'er: 
I'm  nearer  my  home  to-day 

Than  I  ever  have  been  before; 

Nearer  my  Father's  house, 

Where  the  many  mansions  be 
Nearer  the  great  white  throne, 

Nearer  the  crystal  sea; 

Nearer  the  bound  of  life, 

Where  we  lay  our  burdens  down; 
Nearer  leaving  the  cross, 

Nearer  gaming  the  crown. 

But  the  waves  of  that  silent  sea, 

Roll  dark  before  my  sight, 
That  brightly  the  other  side 

Break  on  a  shore  of  light. 

0,  if  my  mortal  feet 

Have  almost  gained  the  brink, 
If  it  be  1  am  nearer  home 

Even  to-day  than  I  think, — 

Father!    perfect  my  trust, 

Let  my  spirit  feel  in  death 
That  her  feet  are  firmly  set 

On  the  Rock  of  a  living  faith. 

The  hymn  has  passed  through  many  changes,  but 
the  text  used  in  this  sketch  is  that  prepared  by  Miss 
Cary  in  1869,  when,  in  collaboration  with  Dr. 
Charles  F.  Deems  6he  compiled  Hymns  for  all  Chris- 
tians. 

How  many  times  a  song  of  the  soul  becomes  a 
lovely  pilgrim,  wandering  over  the  earth,  entering 
many  homes,  touching  many  hearts,  and  "giving 
hope  and  light  in  the  dimness  of  this  clouded  life." 


206  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

The  Kev.  Dr.  Kussell  H.  Conwell,  the  distinguished 
Baptist  minister  and  lecturer,  began  a  tour  of  the 
world  in  1870,  as  correspondent  for  The  New  York 
Tribune  and  The  Boston  Traveler.  In  one  of  his  let- 
ters, and  also  in  his  lecture  on  Lessons  of  Foreign 
Travel,  he  gives  an  incident  of  unusual  interest. 
When  in  Hong  Kong,  China,  he  went  to  a  gambling 
den  in  search  of  a  young  man  to  whom  a  friend  in 
the  United  States  had  sent  a  package.  He  could 
not  then  be  found,  but  was  expected  to  return  in  a 
short  time.  While  waiting  for  his  coming,  Dr.  Con- 
welPs  attention  was  attracted  to  two  men  engaged 
in  gambling.  One  seemed  to  be  about  twenty-two 
or  twenty-three  years  old,  and  the  other  was  possibly 
sixty.  The  young  man  had  hard  luck  with  the  cards, 
and  the  other  was  continually  indulging  in  profanity. 
A  third  game  was  begun  and  more  brandy  was  drunk, 
and  while  the  elder  was  dealing  the  cards  the  younger 
leaned  back  in  his  chair  and  thoughtlessly  began 
to  hum  a  tune,  and  then  to  sing  in  a  soft  tone, 

One   sweetly  solemn  thought 
Comes   to   me   o'er   and   o'er. 

Before  the  first  stanza  was  finished,  the  man  stopped 
shuffling  the  cards.  He  stared  the  singer  in  the  face, 
then  threw  the  cards  to  the  floor,  and  asked  in  a 
trembling  voice:  "Harry,  where  did  you  learn  that 
tune?"  Harry  hardly  knew  what  he  had  been  sing- 
ing, and  inquired,  "What  tune?"  Tears  went  stream- 
ing down  the  other's  face  as  Harry  told  him  he  had 
learned  the  hymn  in  an  American  Sunday  School. 


ONE    SWEETLY   SOLEMN    THOUGHT.  207 

Taking  Harry  by  the  arm  the  gambler  said:  "Come, 
here's  the  money  I  have  won  from  you;  I  don't  want 
it;  I  have  played  my  last  card  and  have  drunk  my 
last  bottle.  Give  me  your  hand,  my  boy,  and  say 
that  for  old  America's  sake,  if  for  no  other,  you  will 
quit  this  infernal  business." 

I  once  asked  Dr.  Conwell  what  became  of  these 
men  after  their  return  to  the  United  States.  He  said 
he  had  lost  trace  of  Harry,  but  the  "old  man,"  as  he 
called  him,  had  been  a  sailor  for  forty-three  years, 
and  was  a  desperate  gambler.  His  name  was 
John  H.  Hodgson,  and  after  reaching  America 
he  began  the  work  of  an  evangelist  in  San  Francisco, 
and  was  wonderfully  successful.  He  was  finally  sent 
to  Oregon  where  he  established  many  missions,  and 
after  eight  years  which  were  full  of  surprising  vic- 
tories in  Christian  service,  he  died  in  that  state  in 
1889. 

Miss  Cary's  hymn  was  first  introduced  in  Great 
Britain  when  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  began  their 
evangelistic  services  there  in  1873.  It  was  sung  by 
Mr.  Sankey  with  surpassing  tenderness;  and  it  not 
only  made  a  deep  impression  at  the  time,  but  it  has 
retained  a  wide  popularity  in  that  country. 

This  is  in  brief,  the  story  of  a  simple,  but  lovely 
song,  from  the  heart  of  a  frail  but  noble-minded 
woman.  Miss  Gary  could  not  appreciate  the  influ- 
ence of  her  hymn  until  she  heard  how  it  had  gone, 
as  "God's  invisible  angel,"  with  that  young  man 
through  years  of  sin,  and  finally  lifted  him  and  his 


208  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

companion  out  of  the  depth  of  wickedness,  and  trans- 
fused into  one  of  them,  and  perhaps  into  the  other 
also,  the  beautiful  spirit  of  Christian  manhood.  She 
read  this  incident  in  1870,  one  year  before  she  passed 
away,  and  the  knowledge  that  her  lines,  which  were 
not  intended  for  public  use,  had  been  the  direct 
means  of  doing  so  much  good,  afforded  her  immeas- 
urable consolation  during  the  last  year  of  her  sainted 
life. 


PHOEBE  CARY. 


XXVI. 

It  is  Well  With  Hy  Soul. 

HEN  one's  life  is  burdened  with  adversity 
or  his  mind  harassed  with  doubt,  there  is 
proneness  to  speak  or  sing  in  pensive 
tones.  This  is  a  common  experience.  Horace  Gree- 
ley was  eminently  successful  as  a  journalist,  and  won 
honor  and  fame;  but  in  his  passing  days  when  his 
aspirations  were  not  fully  realized,  his  feelings  were 
reflected  in  this  declaration:  "Life  is  vapor;  popu- 
larity an  accident;  riches  take  wings;  those  who  cheer 
to-day  will  curse  to-morrow." 

But  I  will  give  the  story  of  a  hymn  that  teaches 
a  much  higher  lesson  than  that  which  writes 
down  life  as  vapor.  It  is  Well  With  my 
Soul,  was  written  by  H.  G.  Spafford,  and 
the  popular  tune  to  which  it  is  always  sung 
is  one  of  P.  P.  Bliss's  best  compositions.  Mr.  Spaf- 
ford  was  a  member  of  the  Chicago  bar,  and  an  elder 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  was  noted  for  his 
charming  Christian  character,  and  his  many  deeds 
of  special  kindness  to  those  in  want.  He  had  been 
greatly  successful  in  his  profession,  but  unwittingly 
had  made  some  unfortunate  investments,  and  when 
the  financial  panic  of  1873  so  seriously  disturbed  the 
business  of  the  country,  Mr.  Spafford  found  that 
his  savings  of  many  years  had  been  swept  away.  The 


210  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

members  of  his  family  were  prostrated  by  this  dis- 
astrous turn  in  their  affairs,  and  he  acceded  to  the 
wish  of  helpful  friends  that  they  should  visit  Europe 
and  thus  be  far  removed  for  some  time  from  the 
scenes  of  his  financial'min. 

Mrs.  Spafford  and  her  four  children  took  passage 
on  the  French  liner  Ville  du  Havre,  and  the  story 
of  that  voyage  is  one  of  the  most  appalling  of  the 
many  calamities  of  the  sea.  When  in  mid-ocean,  and 
in  the  blackness  of  a  November  night  in  1873,  the 
steamship  collided  with  the  Glasgow  clipper  Loch 
Earn,  and  in  twelve  minutes  the  former  went  down, 
carrying  to  death  two  hundred  and  thirty  souls,  and 
among  them  were  Mr.  Spafford' s  four  daughters. 
Mrs.  Spafford  sank  with  the  vessel,  but  floated 
again,  and  was  finally  rescued.  The  saved  were 
taken  to  Havre,  and  from  that  city  she  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  her  husband  in  Chicago:  "Saved,  but  saved 
alone.  What  shall  I  do?"  This  message  of  fearful 
import — "sufficient  to  drive  Eeason  from  her  throne" 
— was  the  first  notice  Mr.  Spafford  had  that  his  dear 
ones  were  not  as  happy  as  when  he  parted  with  them 
a  few  days  before  in  N*ew  York.  He  left  for  Europe 
at  once,  and  as  soon  as  it  was  prudent  he  returned 
with  Mrs.  Spafford  to  Chicago. 

In  his  unutterable  sorrow  Mr.  Spafford  did  not 
chant  a  dirge  to  impossible  hope.  When  he  reflected 
that  his  property  was  lost  in  destruction's  waste,  that 
his  wife  was  painfully  prostrated,  and  that  his  four 
children  were  buried  in  the  dark  waves  of  the  sea, 


IT  IS  WELL  WITH  MY  SOUL.  211 

there  came  from  his  heart  of  hearts  a  song  of  trust 
and  resignation  that  has  many  times  encircled  the 
globe — 

•When  peace,  like  a  river,  attendeth  my  way, 

When  sorrows,  like  sea-billows  roll; 
Whatever  my  lot,  Thou  hast  taught  me  to  say, 

It  is  well,  it  is  well  with  my  soul. 

Though  Satan   should   buffet,   though   trials  should   come, 

Let  this  blest  assurance  control, 
That  Christ  hath  regarded  my  helpless  estate, 

And   hath   shed   His   own  blood   for  my   soul. 

My  sin,  0  the  bliss  of  that  glorious  thought! 

My  sin— not  in  part  but  the  whole, 
Is  nailed  to  the  Cross,  and  I  bear  it  no  more; 

Praise  the  Lord,  praise  the  Lord,  0  my  soul. 

It  was  Mr.  Spafford's  purpose  that  his  remaining 
years  should  be  cheerfully  and  completely  dedicated 
to  the  things  of  God.  When  he  returned  from  Havre 
with  his  invalid  wife,  he  said  to  his  friends:  "I  never 
felt  more  like  trusting  God  than  I  do  now.  After 
the  sundering  of  those  ties  that  bound  me  to  my 
beloved  ones,  I  feel  more  than  ever  like  devoting 
myself  and  all  I  have  to  the  blessed  Savior." 

Mr.  Spafford  believed  in  the  Second  Advent  and 
held  extreme  views  on  that  question.  And  as  an  aid 
to  the  carrying  out  of  his  peculiar  purpose,  his  face 
was  turned  towards  Jerusalem,  and  thither  he  and 
his  wife  journeyed  and  there  they  established  a  home 

*Used  by  permission  of  The  John  Church  Co.,  owners  of 
the  copyright. 


212  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

near  the  spot,  they  sincerely  believed,  where  Christ 
would  descend.  With  a  lofty  faith,  with  a  serene 
hope,  with  a  whole-hearted  consecration,  Mr.  Spaf- 
ford  began  to  teach  in  the  city  made  ever  sacred  by 
the  life  and  death  of  the  Son  of  Man.  After  seven- 
teen years  of  an  active,  yet  pathetic  life,  devoted  to 
a  strange  work  in  a  far-off  land,  he  passed  beyond  the 
sorrow  that  gave  the  Church  his  triumphant  song  of 
the  soul. 

Spafford's  hymn  of  resignation,  with  its  fine 
musical  setting  by  the  lamented  Bliss,  is  one  of  the 
most  helpful  of  the  many  gospel  songs  written  dur- 
ing the  past  quarter  of  a  century.  It  appeals  to 
the  heart  as  but  few  hymns  can.  One  Sunday  even- 
ing a  service  of  song  was  given  in  one  of  our  large 
city  churches  at  which  the  story  of  It  is  Well  With 
my  Soul  was  told,  and  the  lines  sung  with  great  ten- 
derness of  expression  by  the  audience  and  choir.  The 
large  gathering  was  deeply  moved  by  the  hymn. 
Attending  the  service  was  a  gentleman  who  had  suf- 
fered financial  reverses  in  the  panic  of  1893.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Church — a  devout  Christian  and 
tireless  in  his  good  works,  but  at  times  took  his 
business  losses  much  to  heart.  When  he  heard  the 
story  of  Spafford's  heavy  affliction,  and  joined  in 
singing  the  hymn  so  pathetically  inspired,  he  said 
to  his  wife  on  his  return  home  from  the  service: 
"I  will  never  again  complain  of  my  lot.  If  Spafford 
could  write  such  a  beautiful  resignation  hymn  when 
he  had  lost  all  his  children,  and  everything  else,, 


IT  IS  WELL  WITH   MY  SOUL.  213 

save  his  wife  and  character,  I  ought  surely  to  be 
thankful  that  my  losses  have  been  so  light." 

Of  course,  like  many  other  effective  gospel  hymns, 
that  by  Spafford  has  no  special  poetic  merit,  but  it 
was  born  in  the  supreme  experience  of  the  soul, 
and  for  this  reason  has  become  popular  with  many 
congregations  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  It  is  a 
hymn  with  a  mission,  and  the  good  that  it  has  done 
cannot  be  told  this  side  of  eternity. 


XXVII. 

A  Great  Consecration  Hymn. 

jONDEKFTJL  indeed  are  the  stories  told  of 
the  beautiful  life  of  Frances  Eidley  Hav- 
ergal  to  whom  is  ascribed  the  honor  of 
writing  one  of  the  finest  consecration  hymns  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  A  study  of  her  short  life  reminds 
us  that  she  could  read  at  three;  that  she  wrote  verses 
at  seven  with  remarkable  fluency;  that  in  her  girl- 
hood days  she  knew  the  whole  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  Psalms,  and  Isaiah  by  heart,  and  after- 
wards memorized  the  Minor  Prophets;  that  when 
fourteen  years  old  she  had  a  glowing  spiritual  enthu- 
siasm; that  she  early  acquired  the  French,  German, 
Italian,  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages;  that 
she  daily  read  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
in  the  original;  that  she  could  play  through  Handel 
and  much  of  Mendelssohn  and  Beethoven  without 
notes;  that  she  had  a  sweet  singing  voice  and  was  a 
reputable  composer;  and  that  in  her  school  days, 
though  having  a  frail  constitution,  she  climbed  the 
Swiss  Mountains  that  she  might  revel  in  the  scene 
of  perpetual  snow. 

Miss  Havergal  was  born  in  1836  at  the  vicarage 
of  Astley,  in  Worcestershire,  England,  of  which  place 
her  father,  William  Henry  Havergal,  also  a  poet  and 
composer  was  Eector.    It  is  said  that  the  history  of 


A    GREAT   CONSECRATION   HYMN.  215 

her  early  religious  experience  "would  form  a  peculiar 
psychological  study.  She  was  bred  in  the  very  lap  of 
the  Church  of  England  and  her  life  was  singularly 
devout,  and  yet  it  is  sad  to  think  that  her  heart 
was  so  frequently  disquieted  at  the  thought  of  multi- 
tudinous backslidings.  A  deep  longing  after  a  purer 
life,  united  to  a  remarkable  delicacy  of  conscience, 
made  her  very  early  a  partaker  of  that  religious 
melancholy  which  so  darkened  the  days  of  William 
Cowper.  But  in  later  years  she  gained  the  sweeter 
mind  and  the  humbler  and  more  explicit  trust  in 
the  Providence  of  God."  It  is  claimed  by  her  liter- 
ary friends  that  her  life  was  even  purer  than  her 
song;  though  in  her  poems,  as  well  as  in  her  hymns, 
she  was  intensely  religious,  and  intensely  sensitive 
to  all  things  beautiful  and  inspiring. 

A  fragile  constitution  made  Miss  Havergal  pecu- 
liarly susceptible  to  pain,  and  hence  her  frequent  ill- 
nesses were  the  result  of  her  severe  mental  habits. 
"You  must  choose  between  writing  and  living,"  said 
her  physician,  and  she  bowed  to  the  inevitable.  She 
went  to  Swansea,  South  Wales,  hoping  thereby  to 
obtain  strength.  One  day  she  said  to  her  physician: 
"Now  tell  me,  doctor,  is  there  any  chance  of  my 
seeing  Him?"  And  again  she  whispered:  "I  thought 
the  Lord  had  more  work  for  me  to  do;  but  it  is  not 
His  will.  Oh,  yes,  it  is  splendid.  I  thought  He 
would  leave  me  here  for  awhile,  but  He  is  so  good 
to  take  me  so  soon."  The  breath  of  God  softly  touched 
her  face,  and  Frances  Havergal  passed  away  on  the 


216  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

third  of  June,  1879,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-two 
years. 

As  a  writer  of  hymns  and  sacred  poems  Miss  Hav- 
ergal  was  prolific.  While  she  wrote  many  excellent 
praiseful  6ongs,  she  is  more  widely  known  by  her 
Consecration  hymn,  which  has  received  such  a  joy- 
ous welcome  from  the  Churches  of  the  United 
States: 

Take  my  life,  and  let  it  be 
Consecrated,  Lord,  to  Thee. 
Take  my  moments  and  my  days, 
Let  them  flow  in  ceaseless  praise. 

Take  my  hands  and  let  them  move 
At  the  impulse  of  Thy  love. 
Take  my  feet  and  let  them  be 
Swift  and  beautiful  for  Thee. 

Take  my  voice,  and  let  me  sing 
Always,  only,  for  my  King. 
Take  my  lips,  and  let  them  be, 
Filled  with  messages  from  Thee. 

Take  my  silver  and  my  gold, 
Not  a  mite  would  I  withhold. 
Take  my  intellect  and  use 
Every  power  as  Thou  dost  choose. 

Take  my  will  and  make  it  Thine; 
It  shall  be  no  longer  mine. 
Take  my  heart,  it  is  Thine  own; 
It  shall  be  Thy  royal  throne. 

Take  my  love:  my  Lord,  I  pour 
At  Thy  feet  its  treasure-store. 
Take  myself,  and  I  will  be 
Ever,  only,  all  for  Thee! 


FRANCES  RIDLEY  HAVERGAL. 


A    GREAT   CONSECRATION   HYMN.  217 

The  personal  history  of  this  hymn  is  of  unusual 
interest.  The  lines  were  written  on  the  fourth  of 
February,  1874,  and  how  they  caught  their  inspira- 
tion is  told  by  Miss  Havergal  in  a  letter  to  a  friend: 

"Perhaps  you  will  be  interested  to  know  the 
origin  of  the  Consecration  hymn,  Take  My  Life.  I 
went  for  a  little  visit  of  five  days  to  the  Areley  House. 
There  were  ten  persons  in  the  house,  some  uncon- 
verted and  long  prayed  for,  some  converted  but  not 
rejoicing  Christians.  He  gave  me  the  prayer,  'Lord, 
give  me  all  in  this  house!'  And  He  just  did!  Before 
I  left  the  house  every  one  had  got  a  blessing.  The 
last  night  of  my  visit  I  was  too  happy  to  sleep,  and 
passed  most  of  the  night  in  praise  and  renewal  of  my 
own  consecration,  and  these  little  couplets  formed 
themselves  and  chimed  in  my  heart  one  after  another 
till  they  finished  with,  'Ever,  only,  ALL  for  Thee!' " 

Miss  Havergal  possessed  a  beautiful  voice,  and 
sang  only  sacred  music.  Some  believe  that  in  this 
and  many  other  things  "she  over-strained  duty;"  but 
when  her  devoted  affection  for  her  Master  constrained 
her  to  pray  in  verse, 

Take    my   voice,    and   let   me    sing 
Always,  only,  for  my  King,— 

she  was  so  supremely  sincere,  and  so  intensely  spirit- 
ual, that  she  could  take  no  other  course  than  make 
it  her  daily  practice  to  observe  strictly  both  the 
letter  and  spirit  of  the  hymn. 

This  and  many  other  hymns  by  Miss  Havergal  are 


218  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

so  recent  and  have  leaped  into  such  sudden  popular- 
ity that  one  writer  suggests  that  it  is  impossible  yet 
to  speculate  what  position  they  will  ultimately 
occupy.  The  Consecration  hymn  has  distinctive 
merit,  and  is  already  sung  by  millions  of  voices;  and 
the  time  is  not  far  off  when  it  will  be  classed  with 
the  hymns  that  have  made  significant  history. 
According  to  Dr.  Julian  it  has  been  translated  into 
French,  German,  Swedish,  Eussian,  and  other  Euro- 
pean languages,  and  several  of  those  of  Africa  and 
Asia. 

Miss  Havergal  invariably  sang  the  hymn  to  Pat- 
mos,  composed  by  her  father;  and  after  her  death 
the  family  expressed  a  desire  that  the  hymn  and 
tune  should  be  inseparable.  But  Patmos  is  hardly 
known  in  America,  and  the  hymn  has  various 
settings.  I  have  frequently  observed  that  when 
it  is  sung  to  Hendon,  a  tune  of  magnifi- 
cent quality,  composed  bv  Dr.  Malan,  a  feeling  akin 
to  the  spirit  of  consecration,  seems  to  thrill  the  whole 
audience. 

There  are  perhaps  fifty  or  sixty  of  Miss  Haver- 
gaPs  hymns  in  use  in  this  country  and  Great  Britain. 
Among  those  which  are  more  or  less  familiar,  are, 
Golden  Harps  are  Sounding;  0  Savior,  Precious 
Savior;  Another  Year  is  Dawning;  True-hearted, 
Whole-hearted,  Faithful  and  Loyal;  Tell  it  out 
Among  the  Heathen;  and  I  Gave  my  Life  for  Thee. 
While  some  of  her  hymns  are  of  high  quality,  there 
are  others  which  do  not  add  to  her  fame.     Like  all 


A    GREAT   CONSECRATION   HYMN.  219 

other  writers  of  Divine  song,  her  poetic  inspiration 
was  exceedingly  fitful. 

Frances  Kidley  Havergal  is  a  name  that  is  ten- 
derly beloved  by  American  Churches.  "Her  soul  was 
filled  to  the  brim  with  the  spirit  of  philanthropy 
and  self-sacrifice.  It  is  touching  to  think  how  the 
first  money  she  received  for  literary  work — fifty  dol- 
lars— she  spent  wholly  on  benevolent  objects.  But 
it  is  still  more  touching  to  remember  that  one  of  the 
last  acts  of  her  life  was  to  send  her  jewelry  box  to 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  to  be  disposed  of  in 
the  interest  of  the  Association." 

"Her  life  was  like  her  poetry;  it  was  a  stream 
that  made  glad  many  waste  places,  and  carried  the 
elements  of  refreshments  wherever  it  flowed." 


XXVIII. 

Five  Lay  Hymn-Writers. 

IVE  laymen  besides  William  Cowper  have 
done  the  Christian  Church  an  inestimable 
service  in  contributing  to  the  rich  treasury 
of  sacred  song.  With  perhaps  one  exception,  the 
hymns  which  will  be  considered  in  this  chapter  are 
the  products  of  masters  in  hymn-making.  But  all  of 
them  are  fine  examples  of  what  hymns  should  be. 
They  are  bright  with  the  spirit  of  worship,  have 
poetic  grace,  and  have  extensive  popularity.  If  they 
are  not  so  conspicuous  as  some  other  hymns  in  mak- 
ing history,  they  will  probably  remind  the  reader  of 
the  influence  of  the  still  small  voice — which  is  one  of 
the  mightiest  forces  that  Omnipotence  has  created. 
The  laymen  who  have  written  great  hymns  are 
not  numerous  either  in  England  or  America.  A  few 
of  them  have  done  much  to  ennoble  Church  song, 
and  in  this  class  are  five  distinguished  names — 
Montgomery,  Bowring,  Hastings,  Whittier,  and 
Holmes. 

It  is  a  fact  of  general  interest  that  no  other  layman 
in  the  story  of  hymnology  equals  James  Montgomery 
in  the  number  of  his  hymn  compositions.  He  has 
done  so  much,  and  has  done  that  much  so  well,  that 
he  is  called  the  Cowper  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
He  was  born  in  Scotland  in  1771,  of  Moravian  par- 


JAMES  MONTGOMERY. 


FIVE    LAY    HYMN-WRITERS.  221 

ents,  who  were  called  to  the  West  Indies  in  1783  for 
mission  work,  where  both  died  a  few  years  later. 
Their  devout  wish  was  that  James  might  become  a 
Moravian  minister,  but  the  native  bent  of  his  mind 
was  not  in  the  line  of  theology,  and  after  spending 
nine  or  ten  dreamy  years  at  a  Moravian  Seminary  near 
Leeds,  England,  he  entered  various  occupations,  but 
failed  in  all,  and  being  lonely,  depressed,  and  disap- 
pointed, he  became  "a  wanderer  in  the  world." 

Montgomery  began  to  write  poetry  quite  early 
in  life,  and  once  he  went  to  London  in  the  fond  hope 
that  some  publisher  might  buy  his  verses,  but  he  was 
again  disappointed,  and  was  left  hopeless  and  almost 
heart-broken.  Finally  he  went  to  Sheffield  and  found 
employment  in  the  office  of  The  Kegister,  and  two 
years  later — 1794 — when  Mr.  Gales,  the  editor,  was 
compelled  to  quit  England  to  avoid  political  prose- 
cution, Montgomery  took  charge  of  the  paper  and 
changed  the  name  to  The  Iris,  and  for  thirty-one 
years  he  was  its  editor,  and  during  that  time  was 
twice  fined  and  imprisoned  for  publishing  articles 
unfriendly  to  the  government. 

When  he  retired  from  The  Iris  in  1825,  the 
remainder  of  his  life  was  devoted  to  benevolent  enter- 
prises and  Christian  endeavor;  and  when  he  passed 
away  in  his  sleep  in  April  1854,  Sheffield  honored 
him  with  a  public  funeral,  and  an  enduring  monu- 
ment was  erected  to  his  memory.  Dr.  Julian  is  high 
authority  on  Montgomery,  and  makes  the  following 
fine  characterization  of  him  as  a  hymnist:  "With  the 


222  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

faith  of  a  strong  man  he  united  the  beauty  and 
simplicity  of  a  child.  Eichly  poetic  without  exuber- 
ance, dogmatic  without  uncharitableness,  tender 
without  sentimentality,  elaborate  without  diffusive- 
ness, richly  musical  without  apparent  effort,  he  has 
bequeathed  to  the  Church  of  Christ  wealth  which 
could  only  come  from  a  true  genius  and  a  sanctified 
heart." 

Montgomery's  hymns  and  versions  of  the  Psalms 
number  about  four  hundred,  and  Dr.  Julian  says  that 
something  like  one  hundred  are  in  common  use  in 
the  various  English-speaking  Churches.  It  can  hardly 
be  questioned  that  his  most  popular  hymn  is  entitled 
What  is  Prayer? 

Prayer  is  the  soul's  sincere  desire, 

Uttered,  or  unexpressed; 
The  motion  of  a  hidden  fire 

That  trembles  in  the  breast. 

Prayer  is  the  burden  of  a  sigh, 

The  falling  of  a   tear, 
The  upward  glancing  of  an  eye, 

When  none  but  God  is  near. 

Prayer  is  the  simplest  form  of  speech, 

That  infant  lips   can   try; 
Prayer,  the  sublimest  strains  that  reach 

The  Majesty  on  high. 

Prayer  is   the  Christian's  vital  breath, 

The  Christian's  native  air; 
His  watch-word  at  the  gates  of  death; 

He  enters  heaven  with  prayer. 


FIVE    LAY    HYMN-WRITERS.  223 

Prayer  is  the  contrite  sinner's  voice, 

Returning  from  his  ways, 
While  angeJs  in  their  songs  rejoice, 

And  cry,  "Behold,  he  prays!" 

O  Thou,  by  whom  we  come  to  God, 

The  Life,  the  Truth,  the  Way! 
The  path  of  prayer  Thyself  hast  trod: 

Lord,  teach  us  how  to  pray. 

In  a  strict  sense  of  the  word,  this  is  not  a  hymn, 
but  a  beautiful  didactic  poem,  conveying  instruction, 
and  is  the  best  definition  of  prayer  ever  put  in  verse. 
Montgomery  says  he  received  more  testimonials  of 
approbation  of  this  "hymn"  than  of  anything  else 
he  wrote,  an  indication  that  it  has  appealed  to  the 
hearts  of  a  great  many  Christian  people.  Forever 
with  the  Lord,  is  a  hymn  of  much  merit — some  think 
it  is  Montgomery's  best — and  sung  to  the  music  by 
Sir  A.  S.  Sullivan  it  has  become  exceedingly  popular. 
It  was  his  custom  to  write  a  hymn  for  the  Whit- 
Monday  gathering  of  Sunday  School  children  of 
Sheffield,  and  in  February  1832  he  wrote, 

Sow  in  the  morn  thy  seed, 
At  eve  hold  not  thy  hand. 

Every  year  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  this  hymn  was 
sung  at  Sheffield  by  twenty  thousand  children  gath- 
ered in  one  body. 

Montgomery  wrote  much,  and  we  are  told  that 
"those  who  can  distinguish  the  fine  gold  from  the 
sounding  brass  of  poetry  must  place  his  name  high 
in  the  list  of  British  poets."     But  toward  the  close 


224  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

of  his  life  a  friend  asked  him,  "Which  of  your  poems 
will  live?"  He  answered  in  an  earnest,  impressive 
tone,  "None  sir;  nothing  except  perhaps  a  few  of  my 
hymns." 

Sir  John  Bowring,  born  at  Exeter,  England,  in 
1792,  and  died  in  1872,  was  indeed  "a  universal 
genius."  While  celebrated  as  a  man  of  letters,  he 
was  also  a  statesman.  He  served  as  consul  at  Hong 
Kong,  China,  and  was  Governor  of  Hong  Kong;  twice 
a  member  of  Parliament;  and  "as  Minister  Plenipo- 
tentiary and  Envoy  Extraordinary  of  the  Siamese  and 
Hawaiian  Kingdoms  to  the  European  Govern- 
ments, he  concluded  treaties  with  Holland,  Belgium, 
Spain,  Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Sweden." 

He  had  an  astonishingly  large  acquaintance  with 
the  various  tongues  of  the  world.  He  could  speak 
fluently  twenty-two  languages,  and  his  biographer 
says  it  was  Bowring's  boast  that  he  could  converse 
in  one  hundred,  which  surpasses  the  remarkable 
linguistic  ability  of  Elihu  Burritt,  the  "Learned 
Blacksmith"  of  America. 

But  the  name  of  John  Bo  wring  will  be  longest 
remembered  by  the  hymn, 

In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  glory; 

Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time, 
All  the  light  of  sacred  story 

Gathers  round  its  head  sublime. 

When  the  woes  of  life  o'ertake  me, 

Hopes  deceive,  and  fears  annoy, 
Never  shall  the  Cross  forsake  me: 

Lo!  it  glows  with  peace  and  joy. 


FIVE    LAY    HYMN-WRITERS.  225 

When  the  sun  of  bliss  is  beaming 

Light  and  love  upon  my  way: 
From    the    Cross    the    radiance    streaming 

Adds  more  lustre  to  the  day. 

Bane  and  blessing,  pain  and  pleasure, 

By  the  Cross  are  sanctified; 
Peace  is  there,  that  knows  no  measure, 

Joys,  that  through  all  time  abide. 

In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  glory; 

Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time, 
All  the  light  of  sacred  story 

Gathers  round  its  head  sublime. 

It  may  surprise  some  readers  to  learn  that  this  hymn 
came  from  a  Unitarian  source,  Bowring  being  a  mem- 
ber of  that  denomination.  But  it  will  delight  them  to 
be  told  that  he  was  sincere  in  his  faith,  and  was  emi- 
nently evangelical  in  his  life.  He  always  gloried  in 
the  Cross  of  Christ,  and  the  beautiful  inscription,  In 
the  Cross  of  Christ  I  Glory,  is  wrought  in  bold  letters 
on  the  monument  that  marks  his  resting  place. 

This  is  a  noble  hymn.  Attractive  in  literary 
merit,  and  permeated  by  a  deep  devotional  feeling,  it 
has  found  a  place  in  almost  every  hymnal  of  the  evan- 
gelical faith;  and  its  service  is  coextensive  with  the 
language. 

The  Eev.  Chauncey  Goodrich.  D.  D.  and  his  wife 
have  been  missionaries  in  China  for  nearly  thirty 
years;  and  at  the  present  time  the  doctor  is  engaged 
in  revising  the  "Mandarin  edition"  of  the  Bible. 
They  and  their  children  were  in  the  British  legation 
during  that  desolating  struggle — the  siege  of  Peking, 


226  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

in  the  sum  Trier  of  1900.  On  her  return  to  the 
United  States  in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  Mrs.  Good- 
rich told  of  the  awful  experiences  of  the  diplomats 
and  missionaries;  and  in  a  manner  that  thrilled  her 
hearers  she  related  how  after  relief  came  she  with 
others  visited  the  Temple  of  Heaven,  where  no  one 
but  the  Chinese  Emperor  had  offered  prayer,  and  he 
only  once  a  year.  Notwithstanding  the  Empress 
Dowager,  tired  of  hearing  so  much  about  the  Cross, 
had  caused  its  shape  to  be  eradicated  from  the 
National  coin,  the  saved  missionaries  gathered  about 
the  royal  marble  altar  in  this  heathen  temple,  and 
sang  the  hymn — which  better  than  all  others 
expressed  the  heroism  of  their  faith — In  the  Cross  of 
Christ  I  Glory.  At  that  sacred  and  yet  thrilling 
moment,  the  second  stanza  of  the  hymn  must  have 
come  to  that  little  band  of  brave  Christian  hearts 
with  a  meaning  never  before  understood: 

When  the  woes  of  life  o'ertake  me, 
Hopes  deceive  and  fears  annoy, 

Never  shall  the  Cross  forsake  me; 
Lo!  it  glows  with  peace  and  joy. 

Bowring  wrote  several  fine  hymns,  and  one  that 
is  almost  as  widely  known  as  In  the  Cross  of  Christ 
I  Glory,  is  Watchmen,  Tell  us  of  the  Night.  It  was 
written  in  1825,  and  the  first  time  he  knew  that  it 
was  being  used  as  a  hymn  was  ten  years  later,  when 
he  attended  a  prayer-meeting  of  American  mission- 
aries in  Asiatic  Turkey,  and  heard  it  sung  by  them. 

Thomas  Hastings  fills  a  unique  position  among 


FIVE    LAY    HYMN-WRITERS.  227 

American  hymnologists.  He  was  a  Presbyterian  lay- 
man, a  composer  of  great  ability,  and  wrote  more 
hymns  than  any  other  American.  He  was  born  in 
Connecticut  in  1784.  His  father  was  a  physician, 
and  in  1786  moved  to  Clinton,  Oneida  county,  New 
York.  His  love  of  music  began  to  develop  when  he 
was  a  mere  child,  and  in  his  early  boyhood  he  exhib- 
ited rare  ability  as  a  musician.  At  twenty-one  he 
commenced  training  Church  choirs,  and  successfully 
followed  the  business  at  Troy,  Albany,  TTtica,  and  in 
1832  he  was  invited  to  New  York  City,  where  he 
remained  till  his  death  in  1872.  During  those  forty 
years  his  activity  and  influence  in  the  musical  world 
were  very  great.  His  publications  pertaining  to 
Church  music  aggregate  fifty  separate  volumes,  and 
for  most  of  these  he  composed  an  enormous  number 
of  tunes,  and  wrote  many  hymns. 

Dr.  Hastings  is  better  known  as  a  composer  of 
tunes  than  a  writer  of  hymns.  It  is  said  that  his 
compositions  number  not  less  than  one  thousand,  but 
a  majority  of  them  are  still  in  manuscript  form.  His 
music  is  so  universally  admired  that  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  find  a  Church  hymnal  of  the  present  day  that 
does  not  contain  some  of  his  tunes.  He  is  credited 
with  the  authorship  of  some  five  hundred  hymns, 
most  of  which  were  written  for  his  own  music,  and 
as  to  their  use  Professor  Bird,  in  Dr.  Julian's  Diction- 
ary of  Hymnology,  says:  "If  we  take  the  aggregate 
of  American  hymnals  published  during  the  past  fifty 
years,  or  for  any  portion  of  that  time,  more  hymns 


228  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

by  Hastings  are  found  in  common  use  than  by  any 
other  native  writer."  One  of  his  many  hymns  which 
have  gained  general  currency  and  are  greatly  beloved, 
is  Gently  Lead  Us: 

Gently,  Lord,  oh,  gently  lead  us, 

Pilgrims  in  this  vale  of  tears, 
Through  the  trials  yet  decreed  us, 

Till  our  last  great  change  appears. 
When  temptation's  darts  assail  us, 

When  in  devious  paths  we  stray, 
Let  Thy  goodness  never  fail  us, 

Lead  us  in  Thy  perfect  way. 

In  the  hour  of  pain  and  anguish, 

In  the  hour  when  death  draws  near, 
Suffer  not  our  hearts  to  languish, 

Suffer  not  our  souls  to  fear. 
When  this  mortal  life  is  ended, 

Bid  us  in  Thine  arms  to  rest, 
Till   by   angel-bands   attended, 

We  awake  among  the  blest. 

Hastings  made  no  pretensions  to  being  a  Church 
poet;  but  it  seemed  necessary  that  he  should  write 
words  which  would  accord  with  the  varied  sentiment 
of  his  numerous  tunes,  hence  his  hymns  were  vastly 
multiplied;  and  many  of  them  have  been  successful 
in  elevating  song  worship.  He  wrote  two  magnificent 
missionary  hymns — Now  be  the  Gospel  Banner — com- 
posed for  a  TJtica  Sunday  School  celebration  in  1830; 
and  Hail  to  the  Brightness  of  Zion's  glad  Morning, 
both  of  which  are  found  in  many  hymnals  in  America 
and  in  several  in  Great  Britain. 

Dr.  Hastings  has  left  us  nothing  that  stands  as 


JOHN  GREKNLEAF  VVHITTIEB 


FIVE    LAY    HYMN-WRITERS.  229 

high  as  some  productions  of  men  and  women  of 
genius  in  Church  hymnody,  but  his  hymns  have  the 
strong  point  of  being  "pleasing  and  tasteful  in  con- 
ception and  diction,  and  rich  in  Scriptural  teaching 
and  Christian  sentiment." 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  one  of  the  most  saintly 
and  lovable  of  American  poets,  was  born  at  Haver- 
hill, Massachusetts,  in  1807,  and  lived  to  a  sweet 
old  age — dying  in  1892.  He  belonged  to  "that  won- 
drous band  of  poets  and  prose  writers  that  have 
glorified  New  England,  and  that  for  so  many  years 
represented  all  that  was  highest  and  best  in  Ameri- 
can literature."  • 

The  life  of  this  Quaker  poet  was  full  of  charming 
faith  and  hope.  He  may  not  have  had  the  "versa- 
tility of  Holmes,  the  wit  of  Lowell,  or  the  culture 
of  Longfellow,  but  his  note  of  sweet  sincerity  will 
keep  his  name  and  fame  alive  as  long  as  theirs."  It 
has  been  said  of  him  that  with  or  without  genius, 
"he  had  for  more  than  sixty  years  been  writing  verse 
that  sustained  the  weak,  encouraged  the  oppressed, 
inspired  the  disheartened,  put  new  life  and  hope  into 
the  despondent,  that  lifted  weeping  eyes  and  failing 
hearts  to  the  Eternal  Goodness."  Whittier's  hymns 
are  all  good,  are  all  beautiful,  and  one  of  the  tender- 
est,  and  possibly  the  best  of  them,  is  the  following: 

*Immortal  Love,  for  ever  full, 

For  ever  flowing  free, 
For  ever  shared,  for  ever  whole, 

A  never-ebbing  sea! 

*Used  by  permission  of  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 


230  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Our  outward  lips  confess  the  Name 

All  other  names  above; 
Love   only   knoweth   whence   it    came 

And  comprehendeth  love. 

We  may   not   cl;mb    the   heavenly   steeps 

To  bring  the  Lord  Christ  down; 
In  vain  we  search  the  lowest  deeps, 

For  Him  no  depths  can  drown. 

But  warm,  sweet,  tender,  even  yet 

A  present  help  is  He: 
And  faith  has  still  its  Olivet, 

And  love  its  Galilee. 

The  healing  of  His  seamless  dress 

Is  by  our  beds  of  pain; 
We  touch  Him  in  life's  throng  and  press, 

And  we  are  whole  again. 

Through   Him   the   first   fond   prayers   are   said 

Our   lips   of   childhood   frame, 
The  last  low  whispers  of  our  dead 

Are  burdened  with  His  name. 

0  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all! 

Whatever  our  name  or  sign, 
We  own  Thy  sway,  we  hear  Thy  call, 

We  test  our  lives  by  Thine. 

This  delightful  hymn,  which  in  many  books  is  made 
to  begin  with  the  third  stanza,  has  endeared  the 
author  to  millions  of  Christians.  Like  other  of  Whit- 
tier's  sacred  verse,  it  is  a  song  of  the  soul,  beautiful 
in  its  tenderness,  and  has  become  a  favorite  in  En- 
gland as  well  as  in  America.  The  hymn  has  been 
taken  from  a  poem  entitled  Our  Master,  which  con- 
sists of  thirty-five  stanzas.    Nearly  all  of  his  hymns 


FIVE    LAY    HYA1X  WRITERS.  231 

used  in  public  worship  are  cantos  from  poen 
considerable  length.  Of  himself  as  a  hymnist  he 
says:  "I  am  really  not  a  hymn-writer  for  the  good 
reason  that  I  know  nothing  of  music.  Only  very  few 
of  my  poems  were  written  for  singing.  A  good 
hymn  is  the  best  use  to  which  poetry  can  be  devoted, 
but  I  do  not  claim  that  I  have  succeeded  in  compos- 
ing one." 

Apropos  of  Whittier's  poetic  genius  is  the  mag- 
nificent hymn  written  for  the  opening  of  the  Cen- 
tennial celebration  at  Philadelphia,  in  1876.  It 
begins  with  the  immortal  lines, 

Our   fathers'    God!    from   out   whose   hand 
The  centuries  fall  like  grains  of  sand. 

In  all  the  range  of  poetry,  one  cannot  find  two  lines 
which  have  more  completeness,  or  loftier  sublimity, 
than  these. 

The  lasting  influence  of  Whittier's  hymns  is  sug- 
gested in  these  lines  from  The  "New  York  Tribune: 
"Away  yonder  in  the  coming  time  when  a  great  deal 
of  what  passes  for  art  has  crumbled,  and  a  great  deal 
of  what  is  called  genius  has  gone  out,  the  weary  and 
doubting  ones  of  this  world  will  be  taking  fresh  cour- 
age and  renewing  their  trust  from  Whittier's  simple 
lines, 

"I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air, 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care." 

Oliver  Wendell    Holmes,    born    at    Cambridge, 


232  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Massachusetts,  in  1809,  and  passing  away  two  years 
after  Whittier,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  His  versatility  was  unpar- 
alleled among  American  scholars.  Distinguished  in 
the  department  of  exact  science,  he  was  also  famous 
in  the  realm  of  humor,  romance,  and  poetry. 

In  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table,  Holmes 
closes  one  of  the  chapters  with  a  Sun-day  Hymn: 

*Lord  of  all  being,  throned  'afar, 
Thy  glory  flames  from  sun  and  star; 
Centre  and  soul  of  every  sphere, 
Yet  to  each  loving  heart  how  near. 

Sun  of  our  life,  Thy  quickening  ray 
Sheds  on  our  path  the  glow  of  day; 
Star  of  our  hope,  Thy  softened  light 
Cheers  the  long  watches  of  the  night. 

Our  midnight  is  Thy  smile  withdrawn; 
Our  noontide  is  Thy  gracious  dawn; 
Our  rainbow   arch,  Thy  mercy's  sign; 
All,  save  the  clouds  of  sin,  are  Thine. 

Lord  of  all  life,  below,  above, 

Whose  light  is  truth,  whose  warmth  is  love, 

Before   Thy  ever-blazing  throne 

We  ask  no  lustre  of  our  own. 

Grant  us  Thy  truth  to  make  us  free, 
And  kindly  hearts  that  burn  for  Thee, 
Till  all  Thy  living  altars  claim 
One  holy  light,  one  heavenly  flame. 

These  lines  were  written  in  1848  and  were  published 
in  The  Atlantic  Monthly  in  December,  1859.  It  is 
a  hymn  of  surpassing  excellence.    On  the  omnipres- 

*Used  by  permission  of  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 


OLIVKR  WENDELL    HOLMES. 


FIVE    LAY    HYMN-WRITERS.  233 

ence  of  God,  there  is  nothing  else  in  the  English 
tongue  to  compare  with  it.  It  is  a  poem  of  absolute 
faultlessness;/it  is  a  true  hymn,  complete  with  deep 
religious  feeling  and  worship;  and  sublimer  imagery 
was  never  put  in  Church  song. 

In  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table,  pub- 
lished in  The  Atlantic  for  November,  1859,  is  a 
Hymn  of  Trust,  that  in  poetic  charm  and  tenderness 
of  feeling  is  perhaps  equal  to  Lord  of  all  Being.  The 
first  stanza  reads, 

0  love  divine,  that  stooped  to  share 
Our  sharpest  pang,  our  bitterest  tear! 

On  Thee  we  cast  each  earthborn  care; 
We  smile  at  pain  while  Thou  art  near. 

Holmes  wrote  some  brilliant  novels  and  much 
felicitous  verse  which  will  live  a  long  time,  but  noth- 
ing he  produced  of  that  sort  will  last  like  these  two 
hymns.  I  cannot  refrain  from  exclaiming  with  our 
good  English  friend,  Dr.  Horder:  "Oh  that  the  man 
who  could  write  such  hymns  had  written  more!" 

Such  hymns  as  these  have  come  out  of  life's  Chris- 
tian experiences,  and  have  a  perennial  freshness  and 
beauty  in  them.  They  are  the  "silent  ministers"  God 
sends  us  to  help  poor  mortals  Heavenward;  and  their 
use  and  influence  are  not  disturbed  by  the  chances 
and  changes  which  take  place  in  the  affairs  of  men 
and  nations.  Generations  come  and  go,  creeds  rise 
and  fall,  kingdoms  and  governments  are  established 
and  pass  away;  but  through  all  these  changing  scenes 
of  creation  and  destruction,  these  great  heart-songs 
and  the  worship  they  inspire  will  endure. 


XXIX. 

Woman's  ?ongs  in  Evangelism. 

T  is  no  wonder  that  some  of  the  sweetest 
and  yet  the  most  stirring  hymns  the  world 
has  ever  sung  have  been  written  by  woman. 
She  has  the  right  of  way  in  singing  songs  of  the 
redemption  story.  Does  the  reader  remember  that 
during  Christ's  ministry  woman  never  raised  her 
voice  in  the  clamor  against  Him?  And  it  is  a 
touching  illustration  of  His  sympathy  and  holy 
affection  for  woman,  that  He  never  uttered  to  her 
a  word  other  than  of  tenderness  and  forgiveness.  The 
advent  of  Christ  was  the  great  inauguration  day  of 
woman.  It  meant  that  a  new  life,  a  livelier  hope,  and 
a  grander  mission,  were  to  be  given  to  the  woman- 
hood of  the  world. 

Frances  Elizabeth  Willard  suggests  that  forever 
blessed  to  every  woman  must  be  the  thought 
enshrined  in  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning's  matchless 
verse: 

Not  she  with  traitorous  kiss  her  Savior  stung; 
Not  she  denied  Him  with  unholy  tongue; 
She,  while  apostles  shrank,  could  danger  brave, 
Last  at  His  Cross,  and  earliest  at  His  grave. 

Woman  takes  a  high  place  in  gospel  hymnody. 
The  influence  of  her  songs  is  as  widespread  as  Chris- 
tianity itself.    In  the  revival  movements  which  have 


WOMAN'S  SONGS  IX  EVANGELISM.  235 

swept  over  the  land  and  the  world  during  the  past 
thirty  years,  they  have  done  an  immeasurable  serv- 
ice in  the  cause  of  Christ's  kingdom.  I  wish  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  reader  to  a  few  bright  names 
among  women  whose  songs  have  been  conspicuously 
identified  with  the  more  modern  religious  move- 
ments. 

Mr.  Sankey  says  that  the  hymns  of  Mrs.  Frances 
Jane  Crosby  Van  Alstyne  are  sung  more  to-day  in 
revivals  and  praise  meetings  than  those  of  any  other 
living  person  in  the  world.  She  was  born  in  New 
York  in  1823,  has  been  blind  from  tender  infancy, 
was  educated  in  the  New  York  Institution  for  the 
Blind,  and  is  still  living  in  that  city.  From  her 
early  girlhood  her  heart  has  been  a  wTell-spring  of 
poetry;  and  for  a  full  third  of  a  century  she  has 
been  pouring  her  gospel  songs  into  the  hearts  and 
ears  of  millions  of  people.  Mrs.  Van  Alstyne  has 
written  an  enormous  number  of  sacred  songs — three 
thousand  is  perhaps  a  fair  estimate — and  although 
the  voices  of  two  continents  are  united  in  singing 
many  of  her  hymns,  none  of  them,  with  but  two  or 
three  exceptions,  have  been  incorporated  in  the  hym- 
nals of  the  Churches.  But  in  gospel  song-books, 
used  extensively  in  Sunday  Schools  and  praise  serv- 
ices, more  of  her  compositions  will  be  found  than 
those  of  any  other  writer  in  the  history  of  sacred 
song.  Among  her  finer  and  more  familiar  hymns  are 
the  following: 


236  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Pass  me  not,  0  gentle  Savior. 
Rescue  the  Perishing. 
I  am  Thine,  O  Lord. 
Blessed  Assurance,  Jesus  is  mine. 
Jesus,  keep  me  near  the  Cross, 
"lis  the  blessed  hour  of  prayer. 
Safe  in  the  arms  of  Jesus. 
Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord. 
Great  is  Jehovah,  King  of  kings. 
Some  day  the  silver  cord  will  break. 

The  title  of  the  last  hymn  is  Saved  by  Grace,  and 
was  written  in  1891.  Mr.  Moody  was  exceedingly  fond 
of  it,  and  once  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  would 
live  to  become  one  of  the  greatest  of  revival  hymns. 
Many  of  Mrs.  Van  Alstyne's  songs  have  been  popu- 
larized by  the  winning  tunes  composed  by  Dr.  Wil- 
liam Howard  Doane  of  Cincinnati.  He  is  a  Baptist 
and  she  a  Methodist,  but  bells  never  chimed  more 
sweetly  than  his  music  and  her  verse;  and  in  many 
lands  the  songs  are  effectively  serving  the  cause  of 
evangelism.  Her  verses  have  attracted  the  attention 
of  more  composers  of  gospel  music  than  the  products 
of  any  other  hymnist  of  the  nineteenth  century;  and 
in  the  list  are  found  such  names  as  George  F.  Root, 
Mr.  Sankey,  George  C.  Stebbins,  Hart  P.  Danks,  Wil- 
liam B.  Bradbury,  S.  J.  Vail,  Thomas  E.  Perkins, 
Mrs.  Joseph  F.  Knapp,  William  P.  Sherwin,  and 
almost  a  score  of  others. 

Many  of  Mrs.  Van  Alstyne's  hymns  which  the 
public  prize  the  most  were  suggested  by  striking  cir- 
cumstances. "She  has  stood  upon  the  platform  at 
Moody's  Institute  at  Northfield,  with  the  wisest  and 


FANNY  J.  CROSBY. 


V 


WOMAN'S  SONGS  IN  EVANGELISM.  237 

most  profound  teachers  in  the  world,"  and  from  their 
words  she  caught  the  inspiration  to  write  some  of 
her  later,  and  possibly  her  finer  hymns.  How  many 
of  her  compositions  will  survive  the  disaster  that 
comes  to  numerous  gospel  songs  which  are  kept  afloat 
for  a  few  years  only  by  "catchy"  tunes,  cannot  be 
conjectured;  but  the  late  Dr.  Lowry,  who  edited  a 
volume  of  Mrs.  Van  Alstyne's  poems  in  1897,  thinks 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  "of  the  hymns  which  have  come 
up  from  the  throbbings  of  her  heart,  there  will  be 
found  in  the  ultimate  sifting  no  inconsiderable  num- 
ber that  the  world  will  not  willingly  let  die." 

It  is  strange  in  a  sense  that  the  simplest  of  all  her 
songs,  Safe  in  the  Arms  of  Jesus,  is  her  favorite,  and 
perhaps  it  is  the  most  popular.  But  the  tune,  which 
was  composed  by  Dr.  Doane  on  a  railway  train,  lias 
greatly  stimulated  the  circulation  of  the  song.  The 
air,  it  is  said,  was  played  at  the  funeral  of  President 
Garfield;  and  it  was  the  favorite  air  with  the  band 
at  the  funeral  of  General  Grant  on  the  seventh  of 
August,  1885. 

But  Eescue  the  Perishing  is  no  doubt  Mrs.  Van 
Alstyne?s  most  powerful  song  in  mission  enterprises, 
and  has  rescued  many  a  life  from  wretchedness  and 
crime.  And  Mr.  Stead  says  that  in  1885,  in  the  out- 
burst of  public  feeling  in  England  that  followed  the 
publication  of  The  Maiden  Tribute,  Rescue  the  Per- 
ishing was  the  hymn  that  was  always  sung  at  every 
public  meeting  in  connection  with  that  agitation. 

In  all  the  treasure-house  of  gospel  songs  there 


238  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

cannot  be  found  a  more  tender,  heart-felt  prayer 
than  the  hymn, 

More  love  to  Thee,  0  Christ, 

More  love  to  Thee! 
Hear  Thou  the  prayer  I  make, 

On  bended  knee; 
This  is  my  earnest  plea, 
More  love,  0  Christ,  to  Thee, 

More  love  to  Thee! 

It  was  written  by  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Payson  Prentiss, 
born  in  Portland,  Maine,  in  1818.  In  1845  she 
became  the  wife  of  Professor  George  Lewis  Prentiss, 
a  Presbyterian  minister,  but  for  many  years  a  teacher 
of  pastoral  theology  in  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York  city.  She  was  a  voluminous  writer,  and 
the  reader  has  not  forgotten  her  Stepping  Heaven- 
ward, which  reached  a  sale  of  over  200,000  copies  in 
the  United  States,  and  in  a  translated  form  had  a 
wide  circulation  in  foreign  lands.  From  early  wom- 
anhood Mrs.  Prentiss  was  invalided,  and  died  in  the 
height  of  her  literary  fame  in  1878. 

It  is  by  one  hymn  that  her  name  will  be  perpetu- 
ated. It  is  one  of  the  many  beautiful  prayers  in 
verse  that  have  flowed  from  the  great  heart  of  woman, 
and  will  long  remain  one  of  the  precious  treasures  of 
the  Church.  The  date  of  the  hymn  is  probably  1856, 
a  year  that  was  full  of  keen  suffering  and  "of  sharp 
conflicts  of  soul,  and  of  peace  and  joy."  Sorrow 
after  sorrow  came  to  her  which  brought  many  "care- 
worn days  and  sleepless  nights;"  and  out  of  this  try- 
ing experience  came  this  hymn-prayer  as  a  minis- 


ELIZABETH   PAYSCXN    PRENTISS. 


WOMAN'S  SONGS  IN  EVANGELISM.  239 

tering  angel  for  our  guidance,  for  the  inspiration  of 
our  faith,  and  for  the  strengthening  of  our  hope. 

When  Mrs.  Prentiss's  sorrows  gave  birth  to  More 
Love  to  Thee,  her  estimate  of  its  value  to  the  Church 
was  so  modest  that  she  did  not  show  it  to  her  hus- 
band till  several  years  after;  and  when  it  was  first 
published,  about  1869,  and  its  popularity  spread  far 
and  wide,  she  was  filled  with  wonder. 

The  hymn  is  so  beautiful  in  form,  so  delicate  in 
thought,  and  so  pure  in  spirit,  that  its  use  has  become 
almost  universal.  It  was  exceedingly  popular  in 
China,  and  when  the  Christian  converts  among  the 
natives  heard  of  Mrs.  Prentiss's  death,  they  caused  the 
words  of  the  hymn  to  be  wrought  most  artistically 
in  Chinese  characters  on  a  fan  of  exquisite  workman- 
ship, and  presented  it  to  Dr.  Prentiss  as  a  token  of 
their  appreciation  of  its  great  service  in  the  mission 
fields  of  that  country. 

One  afternoon  in  the  winter  of  1860,  Mrs.  Ellen 
Huntington  Gates  of  Newark,  New  Jersey — sister  of 
the  late  Collis  Potter  Huntington,  president  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  railway — wrote  a  little  poem  entitled 
Your  Mission,  the  first  stanza  reading, 

If  you  cannot  on  the  ocean 

Sail  among  the   swiftest  fleet, 
Rocking  on  the  highest  billows, 

Laughing  at  the  storms  you  meet; 
You  can  stand  among  the  sailors, 

Anchored  yet  within  the  bay; 
You  can  lend  a  hand  to  help  them 

As  they  launch  their  boats  away. 


240  HYMNS  BISTORICALLT  FAMOUS. 

Mrs.  Gates  did  not  expect  the  lines  would  be  called 
a  hymn,  or  that  they  would  ever  be  sung;  but  the 
"Singing  Pilgrim" — the  late  Philip  Phillips — found 
them  in  a  newspaper,  set  them  to  good  music,  and 
the  song  had  an  historic  mission  especially  during  the 
Civil  War.  I  will  let  Mr.  Sankey  tell  an  interesting 
circumstance  connected  with  the  early  use  of  the 
song: 

"Away  back  in  the  first  dark  days  of  the  war  a 
young  man  with  a  remarkable  voice  was  invited  to 
sing  in  the  Senate  Chamber  at  Washington,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  United  States  Christian  Commission, 
which  had  met  under  the  presidency  of  the  Hon. 
William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State  under  Presi- 
dent Lincoln.  The  hall  was  crowded  with  leading 
statesmen,  prominent  generals  of  the  army,  and 
friends  of  the  Union.  The  song  selected  on  this 
occasion  was  Your  Mission.  The  audience  was  spell- 
bound as  the  singer  went  on  from  verse  to  verse, 
until  he  reached  the  fifth  stanza,  which  roused  the 
meeting  into  great  enthusiasm.  The  climax  of  the 
song  was  attained  in  this  verse,  which  seemed  so  well 
fitted  for  the  hour: 

If  you  cannot  in  the  conflict 

Prove  yourself  a  soldier  true; 
If,  where  fire  and  smoke  are  thickest, 

There's  no  work  for  you  to  do; 
When  the  battle-field  is  silent, 

You  can  go  with  careful  tread, 
You  can  bear  away  the  wounded, 

You  can  cover  up  the  dead. 


WOMAN'S  SONGS  IN  EVANGELISM.  241 

The  great  heart  of  Lincoln,  who  sat  near  the  singer, 
was  profoundly  moved,  and  he  hurriedly  wrote  the 
following  note  which  was  handed  to  Mr.  Seward: 

'Near  the  close  let  us  have  Your  Mission  repeated 
by  Mr.  Phillips.     Don't  say  I  called  for  it. 

A.  LINCOLN/ 
The  song  was  repeated,  and  this  incident  was  heralded 
throughout  the  country  by  the  public  press,  thus 
calling  attention  to  the  wonderful  power  there  is  in 
appropriate  song  well  sung  by  a  single  voice  to  rouse 
and  thrill  a  great  audience." 

Mrs.  Gates  also  wrote  Oh,  the  Clanging  Bells  of 
Time;  and  Home  of  the  Soul — beginning  with  the 
line,  I  will  Sing  you  a  Song  of  that  Beautiful  Land. 
Both  have  considerable  merit,  and  are  widely  known 
and  often  sung. 

It  is  the  hymn  of  unaffected  simplicity  and  of 
true  spiritual  ring  that  gains  popularity  and  cap- 
tures the  hearts  of  the  people.  One  of  the  simplest 
songs  in  the  books  is  I  Need  Thee  Every  Hour.  The 
writer  of  the  hymn  was  Mrs.  Annie  Sherwood  Hawks 
of  Brooklyn,  New  York.  The  words  had  the  good 
fortune  to  be  adapted  to  music  composed  by  the  late 
Dr.  Lowry,  and  were  first  sung  at  the  National  Bap- 
tist Sunday  School  Convention  held  in  Cincinnati  in 
1872,  the  doctor  adding  the  chorus  to  give  the  hymn 
greater  strength  and  completeness. 

Some  years  since  an  ex-convict  of  the  State  Peni- 
tentiary at  Concord,  Massachusetts,  built  a  humble 
but  tasteful  house  for  himself  and  his  faithful  wife; 


242  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

and  when  it  was  finished  he  asked  Mr.  Batt,  his 
former  chaplain,  to  assist  him  in  properly  dedicating 
it.  The  man  whose  hard  life  had  been  changed  largely 
by  the  influence  of  gospel  songs,  had  the  wisdom  of 
a  Solomon  and  the  humility  of  a  saint  when  he  chose 
I  Need  Thee  Every  Hour  as  the  keynote  of  the  unique 
and  impressive  service.  The  song  was  a  "spiritual 
tonic"  to  him  while  manfully  serving  the  sentence 
of  the  law. 

Mrs.  Hawks  was  a  member  of  Dr.  Lowry's  Church 
in  Brooklyn,  and  perceiving  that  she  had  some  poetic 
gift  he  induced  her  to  try  hymn-writing,  and  the 
chief  result  of  his  good  office  is  I  Need  Thee  Every 
Hour.  The  lines  are  simple  but  warm  with  the  spirit 
of  true  worship,  and  their  usefulness  is  of  wide 
extent. 

Thousands  of  hearts  have  been  refreshed  by  the 
delightful  hymn  called  Even  Me: 

Lord,  I  hear  of  showers  of  blessing 
Thou  art  scattering  full  and  free; 

Showers,   the   thirsty  land  refreshing; 
Let  some  drops  now  fall  on  me, 
Even  me. 

Its  author  is  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Codner  of  Somersetshire, 
England.  We  are  told  that  she  "modestly  courts 
obscurity,"  but  unconsciously  she  made  a  lasting 
name  for  herself  in  writing  this  hymn.  It  is  good 
poetry,  and  glows  with  pure  spiritual  emotion.  It 
has  been  influential  at  foreign  missions,  and  is  found 
in  almost  all  the  leading  hymnals  in  the  United 
States, 


WOMAN'S  SONGS  IN  EVANGELISM.  243 

The  personal  history  of  the  hymn  seems  to  be 
this:  In  1860  Mrs.  Codner  met  a  party  of  young 
friends  over  whom  she  was  watching  with  anxious 
hope;  she  heard  their  report  of  the  great  religious 
awakening  which  they  had  witnessed  in  Ireland; 
those  children  were  dear  to  her  heart,  and  she  longed 
to  impress  upon  them  an  earnest,  individual  appeal; 
in  a  quiet  hour  on  the  Sunday  following  the  meeting 
of  the  young  people,  the  true  expression  of  her 
feelings  was  translated  into  this  hymn;  and  in  1861 
she  published  it  as  a  leaflet,  and  it  did  not  return 
unto  her  void.  Mrs.  Codner  writes  that  she  has 
received  many  sweet  tokens  of  the  influence  of  the 
hymn.  A  young  British  officer,  dying  in  India,  sent 
his  Bible  home  with  the  hymn  pasted  on  one  of  the 
fly-leaves  as  a  memorial  of  his  conversion.  The  Eev. 
E.  P.  Hammond,  the  evangelist,  tells  of  a  mother 
utterly  abandoned  to  evil,  who  was  thoroughly 
inspired  to  Christian  living  by  hearing  the  hymn  sung 
in  one  of  the  Presbyterian  Churches  In  New  York 
city. 

On  this  side  of  the  water  Even  Me  is  sung  to  the 
expressive  music  composed  by  William  Batchelder 
Bradbury,  in  which  he  caught  in  a  remarkable  degree 
the  splendid  spirit  of  the  hymn. 

In  1866  Miss  Katherine  Hankey,  the  daughter  of 
a  London  banker,  wrote  the  life  of  Jesus  in  a  poem 
consisting  of  fifty-five  stanzas.  From  this  poem  two 
notable  hymns  have  been  taken,  one  of  which  begins 
with  the  lines, 


244  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

Tell  me  the  old,   old   story, 

Of  unseen  things  above, 
Of  Jesus  and  His  glory, 

Of  Jesus  and  His  love. 
Tell  me  the  story  simply, 

As  to  'a  little  child, 
For  I  am  weak  and  weary, 

And  helpless  and  defiled. 

The  circumstance  that  brought  the  hymn  to  public 
attention  in  the  United  States  and  numbered  it  with 
the  favorite  and  helpful  gospel  songs,  is  related  by 
Dr.  Doane,  the  composer: 

"In  1867  I  was  attending  the  International  meet- 
ing of  the  Young  Men^s  Christian  Association  at 
Montreal.  Among  those  present  was  Major-General 
Kussell,  then  in  command  of  the  English  forces  dur- 
ing the  Fenian  excitement.  He  rose  in  the  great 
meeting  and  read  the  words  of  the  song  from  a  sheet 
of  paper,  the  tears  streaming  down  his  bronzed 
cheeks.  I  was  very  much  impressed,  and  immedi- 
ately requested  the  privilege  of  making  a  copy.  I 
wrote  the  music  for  the  song  while  on  the  stage- 
coach one  hot  summer  afternoon  between  the  Glenn 
Falls  House  and  the  Crawford  House  in  the  White 
Mountains.  That  evening  we  sang  it  in  the  parlors 
of  the  hotel,  and  though!  it  pretty,  though  we  scarcely 
anticipated  the  popularity  that  it  subsequently 
attained." 

The  second  hymn  from  the  same  poem  is  I  Love 
to  Tell  the  Story,  for  which  Professor  Fischer  com- 
posed the  music.    Both  hymns  are  used  extensively 


WOMAN'S  SONGS  IN  EVANGELISM.  245 

in  revival  and  mission  work,  and  the  first  has  been 
called  for  in  many  languages  including  Welsh,  Ger- 
man, Italian,  and  Spanish.  Tell  me  the  Old,  Old 
Story,  As  to  a  little  child,  has  been  told  millions  of 
times,  and  simple  as  the  song  is,  our  better  natures 
are  touched  by  it  and  "the  most  obdurate  of  us 
become  children  again." 

A  song  that  has  been  blest  with  signal  success  in 
many  gospel  temperance  movements  is  entitled  What 
Shall  the  Harvest  Be? 

Sowing  the  seed  by  the  daylight  fair, 
Sowing  the  seed  by  the  noonday  glare, 
Sowing  the  seed  by  the  fading  light, 
Sowing  the  seed  in  the  solemn  night. 

Oh,  what  shall  the  harvest  be? 

Oh,  what  shall  the  harvest  be? 

The  lines  were  written  by  Mrs.  Emily  Sullivan  Oakey, 
who  was  born  in  Albany,  New  York,  in  1829;  was 
graduated  from  the  Albany  Female  Academy  in  1850; 
and  in  that  institution  she  taught  English  literature, 
logic,  Latin,  German,  and  French  until  her  death  in 
1883.  The  song  was  written  in  1850,  but  was  not 
generally  known  until  Mr.  Sankey  included  it  among 
his  solos,  the  music  being  composed  especially  for  it 
by  Mr.  P.  P.  Bliss.  Mrs.  Oakey  wrote  a  volume  of 
poetry  entitled  At  the  Foot  of  Parnassus,  but  Sowing 
the  Seed  is  her  only  contribution  to  the  cause  of 
evangelism. 

Once  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  were  holding  a 
gospel  temperance  revival  in  Chicago,  and  a  man  who 
had  been  fettered  by  the  vice  of  drink  for  sixteen 


246  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

years,  attended  the  services.  He  had  held  a  high 
social  position,  but  an  evil  day  pressed  him  and  he 
fell.  One  night  he  went  to  the  Tabernacle  and  heard 
Mr.  Sankey  sing  What  Shall  the  Harvest  Be?  with 
that  sympathetic  fervor  of  which  he  is  master.  He 
was  not  much  affected  till  the  third  stanza  was  sung: 

Sowing  the  seed  of  a  lingering  pain, 
Sowing  the  seed  of  a  maddened  brain, 
Sowing   the   seed   of   a   tarnished   name, 
Sowing  the  seed  of  eternal  shame. 

Oh,  what  shall  the  harvest  be? 

Oh,  what  shall  my  harvest  be? 

These  lines  so  vividly  described  the  man's  own  des- 
pairing life  that  he  wrote  them  down  in  his  pass- 
book, and  for  the  moment  was  roused  to  the  inflexible 
purpose  to  break  the  chain  that  had  long  bound  him 
to  the  deadly  enemy.  But  the  struggle  was  a  hard 
one,  and  again  he  fell.  Still  the  intensive  refrain 
rang  in  his  ear  day  and  night,  and  once  more  he 
nerved  himself  for  the  fight.  New  strength  came  to 
him  in  a  few  days;  the  chain  was  broken;  the  man 
was  clothed  in  his  right  mind;  and  he  finally  stood 
before  the  open  face  of  the  world  a  converted  man. 
The  sequel  of  this  man's  conversion,  which  I  take 
from  The  Youth's  Companion,  is  very  touching: 
"Before  Mr.  Sankey  left  Chicago  this  same  man  came 
to  him  and  said:  'Here  is  a  letter  I  want  to  read 
from  my  little  girl.  My  wife  and  I 
have  been  separated  eight  vears  and  I  have  not  seen 
them  in  all  that  time/     With  eyes  suffused  with 


WOMAN'S  SONGS  IN  EVANGELISM.  247 

tears  he  read:  Tapa,  I  knew  you  would  come  back  to 
us  sometime.  I  knew  the  Lord  would  find  you,  for  I 
have  been  praying  for  you  all  these  years/  " 

Before  the  discovery  of  The  Ninety  and  Nine  by 
Mr.  Sankey  in  1874,  no  solo  sung  by  him  during  the 
tour  of  the  evangelists  abroad,  produced  more  remark- 
able results  than  that  beginning  with  the  lines, 

What  means  this  eager,  anxious  throng, 

Which  moves  with  busy  haste  along; 
These  wondrous  gatherings  day  by  day? 
What  means  this  strange  commotion,  pray? 
In  accents  hushed  the  throng  replied: 
"Jesus  of  Nazareth  passeth  by." 

The  song  is  more  familiarly  known  by  the  last  line 
of  the  impressive  refrain.  In  1864  a  powerful  revival 
of  religion  was  in  progress  at  Newark,  New  Jersey; 
and  on  a  Saturday  afternoon  one  of  the  largest 
churches  in  the  city  was  thronged  to  hear  Mr.  E. 
G.  Pardee  give  an  informal  talk  on  the  answer  given 
to  blind  Bartimeus:  "They  told  him  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  passeth  by."  In  the  audience  was  Miss 
Etta  Campbell,  who  was  deeply  moved  by  the  service. 
Returning  to  her  home,  with  the  words  of  the  speaker 
fresh  in  her  mind,  she  wrote  this  hymn.  After  the 
passing  of  many  years  people  may  forget  the  singer, 
but  the  world  will  long  remember  the  song. 

For  sometime  after  the  hymn  was  written  Miss 
Campbell  was  a  teacher  in  Morristown,  New  Jersey. 
She  wrote  another  hymn,  Come,  ye  Children,  Sweetly 
Sing,  that  has  been  frequently  used  in  this  country 


248  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

and  Great  Britain.  The  tune  which  has  contributed 
much  to  the  popularity  and  power  of  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth Passeth  By,  was  composed  expressly  for  the 
words  by  Mr.  Theodore  E.  Perkins. 

A  writer  in  Leisure  Hours,  an  English  publica- 
tion, says  that  in  none  of  the  hymns  sung  by  Mr. 
Sankey  during  his  tour  with  Mr.  Moody  in  Great 
Britain,  did  he  more  clearly  and  feelingly  "sing  the 
gospel"  than  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  Passeth  By.  "The 
effect  produced  by  his  expression,  warmth  of  feeling, 
and  the  pathetic  wording  of  the  last  stanza,  was 
almost  indescribable."  There  is  not  a  more  inter- 
esting chapter  in  the  history  of  the  work  of  Moody 
and  Sankey  both  at  home  and  abroad,  than  that 
which  tells  of  the  trophies  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  Pas- 
seth By.  Audiences  composed  of  many  thousands 
were  time  and  again  thrilled  to  the  very  soul  by  the 
song,  and  multitudes  found  in  it  the  way  to  a  new 
life. 

Mr.  Isaac  E.  Diller,  once  a  prominent  politician  of 
Chicago,  went  from  worse  to  worse  under  the  influ- 
ence of  degrading  associations.  In  relating  his  expe- 
rience in  one  of  Mr.  Moody's  meetings  he  said  the 
first  intimation  he  had  from  God's  Spirit  was  when 
he  heard  Mr.  Sankey  sing  ■  Jesus  of  Nazareth  Passeth 
By.  The  song  came  home  to  him  with  such  force  that 
he  began  to  wonder  if  Jesus  had  passed  him  by.  He 
could  not  steal  away  from  that  awful  thought,  and 
broke  down  under  its  weight.  Jesus  had  not  passed 
him  by;  and  in  the  great  meetings  he  stood  as  a  shin- 


WOMAlfS  SONGS  IN  EVANGELISM.  249 

ing  illustration  of  how  the  soul  of  man  can  be  revo- 
lutionized by  the  gospel  preached  in  song. 

Of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  songs  writ- 
ten by  women  and  published  in  ISTos.  1,  2,  3,  and  4, 
comprising  Gospel  Hymns  Consolidated,  none  is  more 
impressive  than., 

Work,  for  the  night  is  coming, 

Work  through  the  morning  hours; 
Work,  while  the  dew  is  sparkling, 

Work  'mid  springing  flowers; 
Work,   when   the  day  grows  brighter, 

Work  in  the  glowing  sun; 
Work,  for  the  night  is  coming, 

When   man's   work   is   done. 

This  hymn  was  written  in  1860  by  Miss  Anna  L. 
Walker  of  Canada  (now  Mrs.  Coghill),  and  was 
first  published  in  1868.  It  is  a  timely  hymn,  and 
has  been  more  helpful  than  the  best  sermon  ever 
written  on  the  solemn  text  in  St.  John's  Gospel: 
"I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that  sent  me,  while 
it  is  day:  the  night  cometh,  when  no  man  can  work." 
The  hymn  has  been  much  popularized  by  the  delight- 
ful music  of  Lowell  Mason;  and  besides  doing  valu- 
able service  in  evangelistic  meetings,  it  is  often  used 
in  public  worship.  Mr.  Stead  says  that  when  the 
Darlington  (England)  School  Board  was  wrestling 
with  the  religious  difficulties,  a  local  disciple  of  Mr. 
Bradlaugh  subjected  Sankey's  hymns  to  a  critical 
examination,  with  the  result  that  this  hymn,  Work 
for  the  Xight  is  Coming,  was  declared  to  be  the  "only 
one  that  could  be  used  by  the  Board  Schools  without 


250  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

giving  offence  to  the  Secularist  conscience."  How- 
ever much  the  follower  of  Charles  Bradlaugh  was 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  "freethinking,"  he  could 
appreciate  the  significant  lesson  taught  in  this  Chris- 
tian hymn. 

Another  gospel  hymn  that  has  a  good  deal  of 
merit,  and  has  been  often  sung  in  evangelistic  serv- 
ices, is  Mrs.  Lydia  Baxter's  Gates  Ajar.  The  hymn 
was  written  in  1872  for  the  use  of  Mr.  Silas  J.  Vail, 
who  composed  the  music  to  which  it  is  universally 
sung.  Mrs.  Baxter  was  born  in  Petersburg]!,  New 
York,  in  1809,  and  died  in  1874.  From  early  life 
she  was  connected  with  the  Baptist  Church;  and 
although  she  was  invalided  most  of  the  time,  her 
influence  in  all  Christian  activities  was  one  of  the 
marvels  of  her  very  useful  life.  Mrs.  Baxter  pub- 
lished a  volume  of  poems  entitled  Gems  by  the  Way- 
side, in  which  are  several  hymns,  but  chiefest  among 
them  is  The  Gates  Ajar.  Its  power  in  many  religious 
revivals  has  been  very  great.  In  history  it  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  tragic  death  of  Miss  Maggie  Lindsay 
of  Scotland,  who  was  converted  at  one  of  Mr.  Moody's 
meetings  in.  Edinburgh,  and  twenty-eight  days  after 
was  mortally  injured  in  a  railway  wreck  when  on  her 
way  to  Aberdeen.  She  was  reading  Mr.  Sankey's 
hymn-book  when  the  terrible  crash  came,  and  her 
favorite  hymn,  The  Gates  Ajar,  was  marked  with 
pathetic  emphasis.  While  lying  on  a  stretcher,  with 
life  fast  passing  away,  she  uttered  "with  bleeding 
lips,"  the  touching  refrain, 


WOMAN'S  SONOS  IN  EVANGELISM.  251 

0  depth  of  mercy!   can  it  be 
That  gate  was  left  ajar  for  me? 

Miss  Willard  calls  The  Ninety  and  Nine  the  chief 
gospel  hymn  of  our  era.  It  certainly  has  made  much 
history  in  the  past  twenty-five  years;  and  when  sung 
by  a  good  voice,  seasoned  with  grace  and  soul-feeling, 
it  is  one  of  the  most  effective  of  sacred  solos.  Mr. 
Sankey  gives  this  graphic  account  of  the  popularizing 
of  the  hymn: 

"In  May,  1874,  when  taking  the  train  at  Glasgow 
for  Edinburgh  with  Mr.  Moody,  I  went  over  the 
newspapers  to  see  if  I  could  find  any  news  from 
home.  I  was  home-sick,  and  wanted  to  hear  from 
there;  and  glancing  over  the  papers  I  saw  a  dispatch 
headed,  'Light  from  Across  the  Waters/  so  I  gladly 
bought  that  paper.  We  got  into  the  carriage,  which 
Mr.  Moody  and  I  had  to  ourselves.  As  wre  sat  there 
I  read  the  paper  through,  and  at  last  my  eyes  fell  on 
one  corner — up  where  the  poetry  is  usually  found — 
and  there  I  saw  the  lines, 

There  were  ninety  and  nine  that  safely  lay 
In  the  shelter  of  the  fold. 

I  said  to  myself,  That's  a  good  hymn/  and  I  went 
through  it.  I  read  a  good  many  hymns,  but  read 
only  the  first  line,  for  if  a  hymn  does  not  have  a  good 
first  line,  you  may  as  well  put  it  out  of  the  door. 
I  shouted  out  to  Mr.  Moody,  I  have  found  the  hymn 
I  have  been  looking  for  so  long;  it  is  about  the 
lost  sheep  that  was  found  and  brought  home  on  the 
Master's  shoulders.     But  as  I  started  to  read  the 


252  HYMXS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

hymn  he  began  to  read  a  letter  he  had  received 
from  Chicago;  so  I  said  to  myself,  Ton  will  hear 
from  this  later/  I  felt  this  was  a  hymn  that  would 
live.  It  thrilled  my  ,very  soul;  and  I  tore  it  out  of 
the  paper  and  put  it  in  my  old  scrap-book. 

"We  reached  Edinburgh,  and  on  the  second  day 
there  was  a  meeting  in  Free  Assembly  Hall,  and  the 
sermon  by  Mr.  Moody  was  on  the  Good  Shepherd 
giving  His  life  for  the  sheep,  which  was  followed  by 
a  brief  address  by  Dr.  Horatius  Bonar.  The  audi- 
ence had  been  very  attentive,  and  the  hall  was  as 
still  as  death  when  the  minister  closed.  Just  at  that 
supreme  moment  Mr.  Moody  came  to  me  and  asked; 
'Mr.  Sankey,  have  you  anything  appropriate  for  this 
meeting  7  For  the  life  of  me  I  could  think  of  noth- 
ing but  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  and  that  we  had 
sung  three  times.  But  suddenly  the  thought  came 
to  me,  sing  the  hymn  you  found  on  the  train.  Then 
the  second  thought  came  as  quick  as  a  flash,  How 
can  you  sing  the  hymn  without  a  tune?  A  third 
thought  came  to  me,  and  I  listened  to  that,  and 
taking  up  my  scrap-book  I  lifted  my  heart  to  God. 
I  never  sang  a  song  in  all  those  years  without  asking 
God  to  help  me.  I  started  on  the  key  of  A  flat,  not 
knowing  just  where  I  would  land.  I  got  through  the 
first  verse,  but  the  burden  came  again  when  I 
thought,  Can  you  do  that  again?  I  was  very  much 
frightened.  But  I  started  again  and  got  along,  and 
when  the  fifth  verse  came  I  felt  like  shouting  for 
joy,  for  I  heard  a  great  sigh  come  up  from  the 


WOMAN'S  80XG8  IN  EVANGELISM.  253 

audience  and  1  knew  that  1  had  done  well.  Mr. 
Moody  came _over  to  me  and  asked:  ' Where  did  you 
get  that?'  I  Jooked  up  through  my  tears — for  I 
was  weeping — and  so  were  those  Scotch  people  who 
are  very  hard  to  move  to  tears;  and  I  answered: 
'Mr.  Moody,  that  is  the  hymn  I  read  on  the  train 
and  you  did  not  hear  it/  Then  he  replied:  'I  never 
heard  anything  like  it  before/ 

"I  have  tried  several  times  to  change  the  tune 
to  suit  musical  critics,  but  God  would  not  allow  one 
note  to  be  changed." 

While  the  audience  was  being  thrilled  at  the 
singing  of  the  new  song,  a  woman  sat  back  in  one 
of  the  galleries.  She  was  moved  to  tears  by  the 
hymn,  although  the  lines  were  not  new  to  her.  The 
wonderful  impressiveness  of  the  scene  was  so  touch- 
ingly  associated  with  the  memory  of  one  so  dear  to 
her  that  she  experienced  an  intensity  of  emotion. 
She  was  unable  to  speak  to  Mr.  Sankey  "in  the  con- 
fusion that  followed  the  close  of  the  service;"  but 
when  he  reached  Dundee  a  few  days  later,  he 
received  a  letter  from  her  written  at  Melrose,  in 
which  she  said:  "I  thank  you  for  having  sung  the 
other  day  my  deceased  sister's  words.  She  wrote  them 
five  years  ago."  It  was  not  until  Mr.  Sankey  read 
this  letter  that  he  knew  the  authorship  of  the  hymn, 
as  it  was  published  anonymously  in  the  newspaper 
from  which  he  clipped  it. 

The  poem  was  written  by  Miss  Elizabeth  Cecilia 
Clephane,  at  Melrose,  Scotland,  probably  in  1868. 


254  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

She  was  born  in  Edinburgh  in  1830,  and  died  near 
Melrose  in  1869.  She  wrote  a  number  of  hymns,  and 
some  time  after  the  incident  at  Free  Assembly  Hall, 
Mr.  Sankey  had  the  privilege  of  examining  all  of 
them,  but  only  one,  besides  The  Ninety  and  Nine, 
was  suitable  for  a  musical  setting. 

This  hymn  had  a  peculiar  power  over  the  Scotch 
people.  When  Moody  and  Sankey  went  into  a  part 
of  Scotland  where  the  words  of  the  song  were  par- 
ticularly appreciated,  they  had  "the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  in  the  great  open-air  gatherings  which  they 
held,  grizzled,  weather-beaten  shepherds,  men  of  the 
mountains,  who  had  come  from  long  distances,  with 
their  staves  and  rough  clothes,  standing  there  with 
tears  rolling  down  their  cheeks  as  they  listened  to 
the  song  story  of  the  shepherd  and  the  lost  sheep. 
That  appealed  to  them  as  nothing  else  could/' 

I  find  in  a  little  book  printed  in  Edinburgh,  a 
story  to  the  effect  that  a  few  years  after  Mr.  Sankey 
discovered  The  Ninety  and  Nine,  Mr.  Moody  and  he 
were  making  an  evangelistic  tour  in  the  "up  coun- 
try/' in  Michigan,  I  believe — where  rough  men  were 
engaged  in  "lumbering."  At  one  place  there  lived 
a  man  who  was  not  only  a  skeptic,  but  a  bold,  defiant 
scoffer,  and  he  refused  to  attend  the  meetings.  But 
one  evening  Mr.  Sankey  sang  The  Ninety  and  Nine 
with  masterful  tenderness,  and  the  words  were  wafted 
to  the  man's  home  near  by;  they  caught  his  ear,  and 
finally  sank  deep  into  his  heart.  The  next  morning, 
led  by  his  better  nature,  he  sought  the  revivalists, 


WOMAN'S  SONGS  IN  EVANGELISM.  255 

told  them  his  experience,  asked  for  their  prayers, 
and  his  life  became  thoroughly  changed. 

Mrs.  Genevra  Johnstone-Bishop,  formerly  of 
Chicago,  a  sacred  solo  singer  of  great  ability  and 
wide  reputation,  says  she  does  not  know  of  any  relig- 
ious song  so  popular  as  The  Ninety  and  Nine.  When 
on  concert  tours  it  would  be  called  for  more  fre- 
quently than  any  other  sacred  song.  Once  she  visited 
the  Ohio  penitentiary  at  Columbus,  when  the  chap- 
lain requested  her  to  sing  this  hymn.  She  responded, 
and  those  hardened  men  sat  listening  with  tears 
coursing  down  their  faces;  and  the  scene  was  so 
intensely  affecting  that  it  was  only  with  much  diffi- 
culty that  she  finished  the  hymn. 

It  is  perhaps  true  that  The  Ninety  and  Nine 
has  rapidly  attained  a  high  position  among  modern 
gospel  hymns  chiefly  because  of  the  pathos  and 
warmth  of  feeling  with  which  it  is  always  sung  by 
Mr.  Sankey  and  other  capable  singers  of  sacred  song. 
And  whether  this  and  other  beautiful  gospel  hymns 
and  melodies  shall  continue  to  live  and  touch  human 
hearts,  depends  on  how  many  Sankeys  and  Johnstonc- 
Bishops  and  Stebbinses  and  Blisses  can  be  found  in 
the  Churches  of  the  coming  generations  to  dedicate 
their  voices  to  the  singing  of  helpful  mission  songs. 

In  the  bright  annals  of  woman  in  sacred  song  we 
find  many  hymns  which  have  come  warm  from  the 
heart,  but  only  those  which  have  been  born  of  strik- 
ing circumstances,  or  are  notable  in  having  made 
important  history,  can  be  considered  without  depart- 


256  BYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

ing  from  the  predetermined  scope  of  this  volume. 
Woman's  songs  in  evangelism  is  a  theme  of  pecu- 
liar interest.  The  lives  of  those  who  have  made 
rich  contributions  to  our  gospel  hymnody,  have  been 
splendid  anthems  of  praise.  Women  often  write  in 
the  minor  key — probably  because  "what  they  learn 
in  suffering  they  teach  in  song — "  but  herein  lies  the 
secret  of  the  preciousness  and  power  of  their  songs. 
As  long  as  human  hearts  know  joy  and  sorrow,  these 
beautiful  hymns — sweet  and  Christ-like  from  the 
souls  of  women — will  be  loved  and  tenderly  preserved 
by  the  Church. 


XXX. 
"Hoody  and  Sankey  Songs." 

j]0  hymns  have  made  such  striking  history 


during  the  past  thirty  years  as  some  of 
those  familiarly  called  "Moody  and  San- 
key Songs."  That  designation,  or  classification  of 
hymns,  while  originally  restricted  to  the  words  and 
tunes  intended  for  evangelistic  purposes,  has  come  to 
include  a  vast  number  of  songs  that  are  extensively 
used  in  Sunday  Schools  and  in  the  praise  services  of 
the  Church. 

There  has  been  plenty  of  debate  and  wide  dis- 
agreement over  these  gospel  hymns  and  tunes.  There 
are  many  devout  persons  who  can  find  spiritual  uplift 
and  comfort  only  in  the  stately  and  intellectual  tones 
furnished  by  the  masters  of  verse  and  music.  Their 
hearts  cannot  be  warmed  nor  their  religious  enthusi- 
asm roused  by  the  simple  and  emotional  songs  of  the 
more  modern  writers  and  composers  of  revival  hymn^. 
In  this  connection  I  recall  a  remark  once  made  by 
Mr.  Sankey  and  published  in  the  public  press,  which 
was  to  the  effect  that  the  "Sankey  tunes/'  as  he 
himself  called  them,  were  useful  only  in  kindling 
momentary  enthusiasm,  and  were  not  suitable  for 
regular  public  worship.  Many  of  us  bow  to  the  fact 
that  much  of  the  so-called  gospel  music  is  hopelessly 
insipid,  yet  there  is  a  considerable  portion  of  it  that 


268  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

is  helpful  as  an  accompaniment  to  the  progressive, 
evangelistic,  and  missionary  spirit  of  the  Church.  The 
function  of  gospel  songs  is  to  touch  the  common 
throng,  and  to  kindle  a  fervor  of  soul  in  multitudes 
who  cannot  be  moved  by  any  other  class  of  music. 

No  evangelist  in  history  more  keenly  appreciated 
the  power  of  songs  in  evangelism  than  Dwight  Lyman 
Moody.  He  was  not  a  singer  himself;  he  knew  noth- 
ing of  music;  but  he  could  feel  music,  and  was  alive 
to  the  fact  that  gospel  hymns  were  a  necessary  com- 
plement to  his  sermon.  He  was  after  immediate 
results,  which  could  be  obtained  only  by  the  use  of 
song  that  would  awaken  the  emotional  sympathy  of 
an  audience.  It  made  no  difference  to  Mr.  Moody 
how  grace  or  salvation  came  to  women  and  men  so  it 
came  by  rightful  means. 

A  name  preeminent  in  American  gospel  hymnody 
and  music  is  Philip  Paul  Bliss.  He  was  born  at 
Eome,  Pennsylvania,  in  1838.  "He  loved  music  like 
a  bird."  He  went  to  Chicago  in  1864  and  became 
associated  with  the  music  house  of  Eoot  &  Cady,  of 
which  George  Frederick  Eoot  was  the  head.  Mr. 
Bliss  fell  under  the  charming  influence  of  the  noted 
composer,  who  conceived  a  great  liking  for  the  young 
singer.  His  deep  bass  voice  was  as  musical  and  capti- 
vating as  it  was  powerful;  and  it  was  wholly  conse- 
crated to  Christian  service.  In  1874  he  was  invited 
to  join  Major  W.  D.  Whittle  in  conducting  evangel- 
istic meetings  in  the  same  way  that  Mr.  Sankey 
assisted  Mr.  Moody.     They  visited  all  the  principal 


"MOODY  AND  SANKEY  SONGS."  259 

cities  of  the  West  and  South,  and  by  sermon  and 
song  thousands  of  burdened  hearts  found  sweet  com- 
fort, and  many  lives  were  turned  from  evil  to  right- 
eousness. 

In  1876  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bliss  made  a  Christmas 
visit  to  his  mother  at  Kome,  and  were  returning  to 
Chicago  on  the  train  that  went  down  into  the  river  in 
the  appalling  bridge  disaster  near  Ashtabula,  Ohio, 
on  the  wild  night  of  December  twenty-ninth.  When 
the  train  fell,  Mr.  Bliss  escaped  through  a  broken 
window,  but  returned  to  save  his  wife,  and  both  were 
lost.  In  his  boyhood  Mr.  Bliss  united  with  the  Bap- 
tist Church,  but  on  his  removal  to  Chicago,  he  joined 
the  First  Congregational  Church,  of  which  the  late 
Dr.  Edward  P.   Goodwin  was  pastor. 

Mr.  Bliss's  hymns  and  tunes  are  numerous.  In 
the  Gospel  Hymns  Consolidated,  of  which  mention 
was  made  in  the  previous  chapter,  he  has  thirty- 
seven  tunes  to  words  of  other  writers,  and  thirty-four 
of  his  own  hymns  are  set  to  his  music.  The  songs 
by  which  he  is  best  known  in  most  English-speaking 
countries,  are  the  following,  both  words  and  music 
being  his  own: 

Whosoever  Will. 

The  Light  of  the  World  is  Jesus. 

Let  the  Lower  Lights  be  Burning. 

Hold  the  Fort. 

Almost  Persuaded. 

Only  an   Armor-Bearer. 

Pull  for  the  Shore. 

Wonderful   Words   of  Life. 

When  Jesus  Comes. 

Hallelujah,  'tis  Done. 


260  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

These  songs  have  had  an  immense  circulation,  and 
their  usefulness  is  beyond  human  calculation.  Never 
in  the  whole  course  of  Christianity  have  any  songs 
been  the  means  of  bringing  salvation  to  so  many  lives, 
in  so  brief  a  period;  as  those  by  Mr.  Bliss;  and  in 
many  countries,  and  in  various  tongues,  their  use  is 
still  large. 

Mr.  Bliss  possessed  a  surprising  aptitude  for  util- 
izing passing  incidents  in  the  composition  of  his 
songs.  In  the  winter  of  1869-70  the  gifted  pulpit 
orator,  Henry  Moorhouse  of  London,  preached  seven 
successive  nights  to  overflowing  houses  in  Chicago, 
on  the  one  text  in  St.  John's  Gospel:  "For  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him,  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  Mr.  Bliss  heard 
the  sermon,  and  out  of  that  circumstance  came  the 
words  and  music  of  Whosoever  Will.  His  songs  are 
nearly  always  brightened  with  hope  and  cheer,  but 
there  is  one  notable  exception.  Almost  Persuaded  is 
the  most  solemn  and  wailful  of  all  his  compositions. 
He  heard  his  friend,  the  Kev.  Mr.  Brundage,  preach 
a  sermon  in  1871,  which  closed  with  these  words: 
"He  who  is  almost  persuaded,  is  almost  saved;  but 
to  be  almost  saved  is  to  be  entirely  lost."  These 
impressive  words  suggested  the  hymn  that  has  become 
a  potent  influence  in  gospel  work.  When  Moody 
and  San  key  were  holding  services  in  Dr.  Keed's 
Church  in  Philadelphia,  Almost  Persuaded  was  sung 
several  times,  and  at  the  close  of  one  of  the  meetings 


PHILIP  PAUL  BLISS. 


"MOODY  AND  8  AN  KEY  SONGS."  261 

a  lawyer,  who  had  been  deeply  affected  by  the  grave 
import  of  the  words  and  "the  wistful  wail  of  the 
music,"  met  the  evangelists  and  said  that  he  was  not 
only  "almost,"  but  altogether  persuaded,  to  live  a 
Christian  life. 

Years  ago  in  the  wrecking  of  a  vessel,  a  life-boat 
saved  the  captain  and  sixteen  sailors;  and  in  aban- 
doning the  old  wreck  the  crew  were  told  that  there 
was  nothing  more  to  do  but  to  "pull  for  the  shore." 
Mr.  Bliss  spiritualized  the  incident  and  wrote  one  of 
the  most  stirring  of  his  compositions.  Mr.  Moody 
once  gave  a  graphic  description  of  a  wreck  in  the 
Cleveland  harbor;  the  lower  lights  of  the  lighthouse 
had  gone  out,  leaving  only  one,  and  that  but  dimly 
burning.  In  a  wild  sea,  and  with  the  blackness  of 
night  all  about  him,  the  pilot  made  a  desperate  effort 
to  reach  the  shore,  but  he  missed  the  channel  and 
the  vessel  went  to  the  bottom.  The  fate  of  the  boat 
and  most  of  the  passengers  suggested  to  Mr.  Bliss 
the  well  known  hymn,  Let  the  Lower  Lights  be  Burn- 
ing, which  has  been  used  effectively  in  many  gospel 
campaigns.  Only  an  Armor-Bearer,  came  from  the 
story  of  the  young  man  mentioned  in  First  Samuel — 
the  faithful  and  courageous  armor-bearer  to  Jona- 
than. It  is  a  stimulating  Christian  soldier  song,  and 
was  prized  in  London  above  all  other  gospel  hymns 
sung  by  Mr.  Sankey,  possibly  excepting  The  Ninety 
and  Nine. 

But  no  composition  by  Mr.  Bliss  has  carried  his 
name  into  so  many  homes  in  America  and  in  foreign 


262  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

lands,  as  Hold  the  Fort.  There  is  nothing  particu- 
larly meritorious  in  either  the  words  or  music,  but  it 
possesses  an  "indefinable  something"  that  has  made 
it  more  popular  than  anything  else  written  or  com- 
posed by  him.  The  reader  will  remember  that  the 
song  was  inspired  by  the  heroic  act  of  General  Corse, 
at  Allatoona  Pass,  Georgia,  on  the  fifth  of  October, 
1864.  John  Murray  Corse  held  the  Federal  fort,  and 
for  hours  sustained  a  terrific  artillery  fire  from  the 
Confederates  under  General  French.  It  seemed  like 
a  hopeless  situation  for  the  Union  men.  Corse's  ear 
and  cheek-bone  had  been  shot  away,  and  besides 
suffering  intense  pain,  he  was  terribly  fatigued;  but 
he  directed  his  men  and  held  the  fort.  Sherman  was 
eighteen  miles  away,  and  when  Corse  signaled  his 
perilous  condition,  the  old  warrior  waved  back  the 
answer  from  the  summit  of  Kenesaw  Mountain — 
"Hold  the  fort;  Fm  coming."  Mr.  Bliss  wrote  the 
words  and  music  in  1871,  and  in  a  few  months  Hold 
the  Fort  was  the  song  of  millions.  It  is  in  many 
instances  an  inspiration  to  religious  fervor.  The  flood- 
tide  of  its  popularity  began  across  the  sea  when 
Moody  and  Sankey  stirred  Great  Britain  with  their 
gospel  meetings.  It  was  the  keynote  of  the  wonder- 
ful campaign  against  evil,  inaugurated  in  New  York 
city  by  Mr.  Moody,  on  Monday  night,  February 
seventh,  1876.  Eight  thousand  people  had  traveled 
through  rain,  slush,  and  mud,  to  fill  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  vast  Hippodrome.  The  first  song  was 
Hold  the  Fort;  and  when  Mr.  Sankey  sang  the  des- 


"MOODY  AND  SANKEY  SONGS."  263 

criptive  lines  and  the  mighty  audience  joined  in  the 
refrain,  everybody  present  was  impressed  with  the 
fact  that  the  meeting  was  the  beginning  of  one  of 
the  greatest  religions  revivals  ever  witnessed  in  New 
York  city. 

A  few  instances  of  the  influence  and  popularity  of 
the  song  will  be  of  special  interest.  When  Mr.  Moody 
was  in  Dublin  in  1874,  his  revival  meetings  interfered 
with  the  attendance  at  the  Royal  circus,  and  a  few 
weeks  later  the  clowns  attempted  to  ridicule  the  evan- 
gelists, but  the  audience  hissed  them  out  of  the 
ring;  and  when  some  courageous  person  started  Hold 
the  Fort,  the  people  all  joined  with  glad  voices  in 
the  rousing  chorus.  The  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  once 
said  that  if  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  had  done 
no  more  than  to  teach  the  English  people  to  sing  such 
songs  as  Hold  the  Fort,  they  had  by  that  alone  con- 
ferred on  them  an  inestimable  blessing.  The  late 
Dr.  Goodwin  of  Chicago,  once  told  of  a  missionary 
in  South  Africa,  who  established  a  mission  in  a  Zulu 
hut,  and  the  first  thing  he  heard  the  natives  sing  was 
Hold  the  Port.  In  the  great  city  of  Birmingham, 
England,  where  meetings  were  held  by  the  evan- 
gelists, Bingley  Hall  was  filled  night  after  night  with 
vast  audiences,  and  the  delight  of  the  people  seemed 
almost  supreme  when  Sankey  invited  them  to  join 
in  the  chorus  of  the  song. 

Such  a  thrilling  use  of  Hold  the  Fort  as  that 
recorded  in  Birmingham  and  in  the  Hippodrome  was 
witnessed  at  all  the  meetings  conducted  by  Moody 


264  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

and  Sankey  in  the  large  cities  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States.  People  have  seen  strange  things 
come  from  the  singing  of  this  song;  and  have  been 
puzzled  beyond  the  hope  of  enlightenment  in  the 
effort  to  discover  what  there  is  in  the  words  or  music 
to  move  so  profoundly  the  hearts  of  women  and 
men. 

Once  Mr.  Bliss  said  to  Mr.  Sankey:  "I  have 
written  better  songs  than  Hold  the  Fort,  and  I  hope 
I  shall  not  be  known  to  the  world  only  as  the  author 
of  that  hymn."  But  it  was  a  strange  irony  of  fate 
that  when  a  large  monument  was  reared  to  Mr.  Bliss's 
memory  at  the  place  of  his  birth,  there  was  inscribed 
thereon  in  bold  letters,  the  living  and  inspiring  mot- 
to: "Hold  the  Fort." 

Another  shining  name  in  gospel  hymnody  is  the 
Eev.  Dr.  Robert  Lowry  of  the  Baptist  denomination, 
born  in  Philadelphia,  in  1823,  and  died  in  1899.  He 
edited  some  twenty  different  hymn-books  for  Sunday 
Schools  and  praise  services;  and  is  the  writer  and 
composer  of  many  beautiful  hymns  and  tunes.  His 
most  popular  hymn,  though  perhaps  not  his  best  is 
Shall  we  Gather  at  the  River?  which  came  to  him 
"like  a  cloud-burst,"  one  day  in  July,  1864,  at  his 
home  in  Brooklyn,  New  York.  We  are  told  that  the 
doctor  wondered  why  so  many  hymn-writers  said  so 
much  about  the  "river  of  death,"  and  so  little  about 
the  "river  of  life;"  and  that  the  words  and  music 
were  the  fruitage  of  that  thought.  It  is  a  bright 
song,  with  a  happy,  march-like  movement  to  it,  and 


"MOODY  AND  SANKEY  SONGS."  265 

is  a  favorite  with  brass-bands,  and  largely  for 
that  reason  Dr.  Lowry  never  thought  much  of  it. 
But  the  taste  of  the  great  mass  of  people  as  to 
songs  is  peculiar,  and  Shall  we  Gather  at  the 
River?  has  attained  a  popularity  that  is  almost  world- 
wide. 

In  May,  1865,  the  hymn  was  sung  by  forty  thou- 
sand children  in  one  body  at  the  Brooklyn  Sunday 
School  anniversary.  Lady  Colin  Campbell,  who  did 
such  distinguished  service  among  the  poor  of  London, 
was  tendered  a  public  reception  at  Mission  Hall,  not 
many  years  ago.  In  noting  the  event  The  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  said  that  what  every  one  present  wanted  to 
hear  besides  the  speeches  was  Shall  we  Gather  at  the 
River?  by  Lady  Colin;  and  when  she  responded,  the 
hymn  was  sung  with  a  refinement  of  tone  and  feeling 
that  seemed  to  pass  into  the  care-worn  faces  of  the 
poor  people  who  had  joined  in  the  royal  greeting.  Dr. 
Lowry  attended  the  Eobert  Raikes  centennial  in 
London  in  1880,  at  which  delegates  from  America, 
Asia,  and  various  parts  of  Europe,  were  present.  Sir 
Charles  Reed,  member  of  Parliament,  presided;  and 
after  the  last  speaker  had  left  the  platform,  the 
chairman  was  told  that  the  author  of  Shall  we  Gather 
at  the  River?  was  in  the  hall.  The  doctor,  who  sat 
in  a  rear  seat,  unknown  to  those  about  him,  was  called 
forward  and  introduced  to  the  audience.  The  hymn 
had  made  his  name  familiar  to  the  many  nationali- 
ties in  the  convention,  and  his  reception  was  marked 
by  wild  demonstrations  of  joy.  The  hymn  has  been 


266  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

translated  into  many  languages  and  is  used  at  numer- 
ous mission  stations  in  foreign  fields. 

Simple  hymns,  adapted  to  bright,  singable  tunes, 
win  the  most  favor  regardless  of  creed  or  nationality. 
Some  thirty  years  ago,  the  Eev.  William  Orcutt  Crush- 
ing, born  in  Massachusetts,  in  1823,  wrote  a  little 
song  beginning  with  the  lines, 

When  He  cometh 
When  He  cometh 
To  make  up  His  jewels. 

George  F.  Eoot  set  the  words  to  music  as  simple 
and  attractive  as  the  hymn  itself,  and  Jewels,  a  title 
by  which  the  song  is  commonly  known,  has  ever  since 
been  traveling  around  the  world.  I  am  indebted  to 
Mr.  Hezekiah  Butterworth  for  the  following  incident: 
An  English  steamer  was  coming  to  Canada,  and  one 
day  the  minister  in  the  steerage  asked:  "What  shall 
we  sing?  It  must  be  something  we  all  know,  for 
nearly  all  countries  of  Europe  are  gathered  here." 
The  master  of  the  steerage  answered:  "Then  it  must 
be  an  American  tune;  try  Jewels."  There  were  a 
thousand  people  in  the  steerage,  speaking  several 
different  tongues,  but  with  one  voice  they  sang  in  full 
chorus,  When  He  Cometh.  The  vessel  landed  at  Que- 
bec, and  the  emigrants  filled  two  long  trains  of  cars, 
one  going  east  and  the  other  to  Georgian  Bay;  and 
as  they  parted  each  began  to  sing  When  He  Cometh. 
"The  tune  made  the  hymn  a  common  language." 

There  is  a  hymn  of  recent  date  and  of  pathetic 
origin  that  will  surely  make  history  in  future  evan- 


"MOODY  AND  SANKEY  SONGS."  267 

gelism.  During  the  Civil  War  a  young  man  received 
a  wound  that  necessitated  the  amputation  of  a  leg. 
He  was  taken  to  a  hospital,  and  while  preparations 
were  being  made  for  the  operation,  he  begged  for  a 
violin  that  he  might  play  a  tune.  He  played  the 
piece  with  such  tender  sympathy  that  it  almost  broke 
the  hearts  of  the  surgeons,  who  did  not  know  but 
that  it  might  be  his  dying  hymn.  When  the  air  was 
finished  he  was  greatly  comforted,  and  said:  "Come 
on,  doctor,  Fm  ready."  The  young  man  recovered 
from  the  operation,  and  afterwards  went  to  college, 
studied  for  the  ministry,  and  became  a  successful 
preacher,  and  was  called  to  a  large  church  in  San 
Francisco.  A  few  years  passed  away,  and  then  the 
darkest  shadow  earth  can  cast,  fell  upon  his  home. 
His  wife  died;  and  while  pondering  the  mystery  of 
Divine  Providence  he  wrote  a  hymn  entitled,  Some- 
time we'll  Understand,  of  which  the  following  is  the 
first  stanza: 

*Xot  now,  but  in  the  coming  years, 

It  may  be  in  the  better  land, 
We'll  read  the  meaning  of  our  tears, 

And  there,  sometime,  we'll  understand. 

The  author  of  this  hymn  was  the  Eev.  Maxwell 
N.  Cornelius,  D.  D.,  and  the  music  to  which  it  is 
always  sung  was  composed  by  Mr.  James  McGrana- 
han. 

Mr.  Sankey  is  the  greatest  singing  evangelist  liv- 
ing.   His  voice  has  been  heard  by  more  people  than 

*Used  by  permission  of  James  McGranhan  owner  of  Copyright. 


268  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

ever  listened  to  any  other  singer  in  the  history  of 
Christianity.  He  was  born  in  Edinburgh,  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1840;  and  has  been  a  member  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  denomination  ever  since  he  was 
fifteen  years  old.  He  was  a  soldier  in  the  Civil  War, 
and  shortly  after  its  close  he  was  appointed  collector 
of  internal  revenue  in  the  Newcastle,  (Pennsylvania) 
district,  and  was  holding  the  position  when  he  met 
Mr.  Moody  at  Indianapolis  in  June,  1870.  The  meet- 
ing of  these  two  men  at  that  time  was  the  turning 
point  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Sankey,  for  like  Matthew  of 
old,  he  decided  to  give  up  tax-gathering  and  devote 
his  time  and  wonderful  talent  to  evangelism.  He  has 
a  strong,  clear,  magnetic  barytone  voice.  His  tones 
are  always  melodious,  and  his  enunciation  perfect. 
It  is  by  no  trick  of  the  voice  that  he  so  controls  the 
emotions  of  an  audience  as  to  make  his  name,  like 
that  of  Mr.  Moody's,  a  household  word  in  Europe 
and  America.  He  sings  right  from  the  heart,  and 
naturally  enough,  his  intense  religious  zeal  inspires 
his  hearers. 

Mr.  Sankey  is  chief  editor  of  the  various  editions 
of  Gospel  Hjonns,  to  which  he  has  contributed  some 
tunes  of  great  merit.  One  of  his  finest  compositions 
is  Hiding  in  Thee — the  musical  setting  of  the  noble 
hymn  by  the  Eev.  W.  0.  Cushing — 0  Safe  to  the 
Eock  that  is  Higher  than  I.  While  he  has  com- 
posed many  tunes  which  are  of  great  service 
in  Sunday  Schools  and  in  meetings  of  the  Society 
of  Christian  Endeavor,  it  is  on  his  marvelous  gospel 


"MOODY  AND  SANKEY  SONGS.11  269 

singing,  and  his  life-long  companionship  with  Mr. 
Moody,   that   Mr.   Sankey's    reputation  will   chiefly 

rest. 

No  composer  has  done  more  to  popularize  and 
dignify  gospel  music  than  Dr.  Doane,  of  whom  men- 
tion has  already  been  made.  He  was  born  in  Con- 
necticut in  1832,  and  received  a  thorough  business 
training  in  the  counting-room  of  a  manufacturing 
company,  first  at.  Norwich,  afterwards  in  Chicago, 
and  finally  as  president  of  the  same  concern  at  Cin- 
cinnati. A  Baptist  authority  says  Dr.  Doane  has 
composed  music  for  more  than  six  hundred  Sunday 
School  songs,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  Church 
and  prayer-meeting  hymn-tunes,  and  two  hundred 
and  fifty  other  pieces  of  a  sacred  character.  Such 
a  prodigious  flow  of  tunes  from  the  pen  of  one  man 
is  apt  to  induce  a  degenerate  style  of  composition, 
but  Dr.  Doane's  work  has  been  uniformly  good,  and 
not  a  single  tune  from  him  has  brought  discredit 
upon  the  cause  of  worthy  gospel  music.  His  musical 
setting  of  Mrs.  Prentiss's  hymn,  More  Love  to  Thee, 
is  found  in  nearly  all  standard  Church  hymnals. 

The  number  of  gospel  singers  actively  engaged 
with  their  voices  in  evangelistic  work  and  who  have 
become  eminent  in  that  divine  calling,  is  small 
indeed.  Mr.  Sankey  and  George  Coles  Stebbins 
practically  stand  alone  in  this  category.  The  latter 
was  born  in  New  York  in  1846.  He  sometimes 
assisted  Mr.  Moody,  and  recently  was  the  co-laborer 
of  the  late  Major  Whittle  in  conducting  revival  meet- 


270  HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 

ings  in  Scotland.  He  is  not  only  a  fine  singer,  but 
his  compositions  are  found  in  many  hymnals.  His 
music  to  Mrs.  Van  Alstyne's  Some  day  the  Silver 
Cord  will  Break,  is  an  admirable  piece  of  work,  and 
secures  for  that  hymn  a  wide  popularity  and  enduring 
usefulness. 

In  this  brief  account  of  some  hymns  which  have 
made  history  we  learn  that  any  heart-speech  in  the 
form  of  a  hymn,  that  tells  of  soul-struggles  and  of 
aspirations  in  Christian  life,  goes  around  the  world; 
for  in  every  home,  in  every  community,  in  every 
Church  communion,  there  is  some  soul  that  needs  the 
inspiring  and  purifying  influence  of  such  a  hymn. 
The  story  of  these  historic  songs  also  Impresses  us 
with  the  fact  that  a  good  hymn — whether  it  is  one 
of  the  majestic  anthems  of  the  Church  universal,  or 
a  simple  but  fervent  utterance  of  one  of  the  gos- 
pel singers — retains  a  more  permanent  hold  on  our 
thoughts  and  feelings  than  any  other  human  compo- 
sition. 

And  again,  the  record  of  the  hymns  which  are 
radiant  with  histories  and  stand  as  memorials  of  many 
heart-experiences,  reminds  us  of  the  times  we  have 
been  thrilled  when  we  joined  with  soul  and  voice  in 
singing  these  songs  of  praise  and  adoration;  but  when 
we  come  to  stand  in  Zion  how  much  more  thrilling 
will  be  the  outburst  of  that  sublime  congregational 
singing — the  consummation  of  all  song — that  Saint 
John  the  Divine  heard,  in  which  no  tongue  in  all  the 
universe  of  God  was  silent — 


"MOODY  AND  SANKET  SONGS."  271 

"And  I  beheld,  and  heard  the  voice  of  many 
angels  round  about  the  throne,  and  the  number  of 
them  was  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand,  and 
thousands  of  thousands;  saying  with  a  loud  voice, 
Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain,  to  receive  power, 
and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and  strength,  and  honor, 
and  glor)',  and  blessing.  And  every  creature  which 
is  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  and 
such  as  are  in  the  sea,  and  all  that  are  in  them, 
heard  I  saying,  Blessing,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and 
power,  be  unto  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne, 
and  unto  the  Lamb  for  ever  and  ever." 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Art  Thou  Weary,  history  of,  10, 
text  of,  11;  Dr.  Neale's  transla- 
tion of,  12;  Mrs.  Green's  use  of. 
13. 

Arise,  My  Soul,  Arise,  story  of,  73. 

All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name, 
when  and  how  written,  128;  the 
original  text,  128,  129;  when  first 
sung,  129;  its  great  influence. 
131. 

Abbott,  Emma,  an  impressive 
story,  144. 

Abide  with  Me.  167;  its  pathetic 
story,  169,170;  incidents  of  its 
use,  172,  173. 

Adams,  Sarah  F.,  175;  her  ill 
health  and  death,  177. 

American  Hymns,  Four  great,  183. 


Baker,  Sir  Henry  Williams,  12. 

Before  Jehovah's  Awful  Throne, 
59;  Wesley's  Amendment  of,  59. 

Blest  be  the  Tie  that  Binds,  103, 
104;  examples  of  its  popularity, 
106-107;  sung  before  Queen  Vic- 
toria, 107. 

Butterworth,  Hezekiah,  on  Coron- 
ation, 130. 

Browning,  Robert,  indirectly  in- 
spired Nearer  My  God,  to  Thee, 
181. 

Bonar,  Horatius,  192;  his  popular 
hymn,  193;  his  best  hymns,  195. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  a  touching 
incident  in  the  life  of,  194. 

Bowring,  Sir  John,  224;  his  extra- 
ordinary gifts,  224;  his  popular 
hymn,  224-225. 

Baxter,  Lydia,  250. 

Bliss,  P.  P.,  258;  his  tragic  death, 
259;  power  of  his  hymns,  260; 
how  they  were  suggested, 260-262. 


Cosin,  Bishop,  translator  of  Veni 
Creator,  15. 

Come,  Thou  Long  Expected  Jesus, 
a  great  hymn,  73;  Prof.  Bird  on, 
73. 

Cowper,  William,  89;  his  afflic- 
tions, 90;  his  last  poem,  92;  At- 
lantic Monthly  on,  92;  Mrs. 
Browning  on,  92;  stories  of  his 
hymns,  93-94;  his  most  popular 
hymn,  95;  his  life  at  Olney  with 
Newton,  90. 

Coronation,  127;  the  music,  how 
composed,  130. 

Cary,  Phoebe,  204. 

Conwell,  Russell  H.,  interesting 
anecdote  by,  206, 

Crosby,  Fanny  J.,  235;  influence 
of  her  hymns,  237. 

Codner,  Elizabeth,  242, 

Campbell,  Etta,  247. 

Coghill,  Mrs  ,  249. 

Clephane,  Elizabeth  C,  253. 

Campbell,  Lady  Colin,  265. 

Cornelius,  Dr.  Maxwell  N.,  267. 

Cushing,  W.  O.,  268. 

D 

Dies  Irae,  The,  when  written,  19; 

Scott's    paraphrase  of,   21;   Dr. 

Iron's  version  of,  22;  Gen.   Dix's 

translation,  24;  incidents  of  its 

power,  27. 
Doxology,   The    Great,    39;   when 

written,  41;  incidents  of  its  use, 

41-47;  singing  of  at  Peking,  47. 
Delaney,    James,  how  converted, 

56. 
Doddridge,  Philip,  63;  his  life  and 

death,  63-64;   how  he  wrote  his 

hymns,  65. 
Dykes,    John    B.,    his    music     to 

Heber's  Trinity  Hymn,  139;  how 

he    wrote   the   tune    to     Lead, 

kindly  Light,  155. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


273 


Duffield,  George,  199;  how  he  wrote 
Stand  Up  For  Jesus,  199. 

Doane,  W.  H.,  236-244;  his  com- 
positions. 269. 

E 

Kin  Feste  Burp,  30;  when  written, 
82;  Hedge's  translation  of,  32; 
Carlyle's  translation  of,  34;  inci- 
dents of  its  use,  36-37. 

Elliott,  Charlotte,  157;  her  famous 
livrnn,  Just  As  I  Am.  158;  her 
hymn.  Thy  Will  Be  Dono,  a 
favorite  with  Queen  Victoria, 
165. 


From  All  That  Dwell  Below  the 
Skies,  sung  at  the  Peace  Jubilee, 
58. 

Father,  Whate'er  of  Earthly  Bliss, 
87. 

Fields,  James  T.,  94. 

Fawcett,  John,  102;  his  self-sacri- 
fice, 103. 

From  Greenland's  icy  Mountains, 
its  origin,  135;  text  of,  136. 

Five  Lay  Hymn-Writers,  220. 


Gray,  Prof.,  interesting  incident 
of' the  singing  of  Doxology,  42. 

God  Moves  in  A  Mysterious  Way, 
how  written,  94;  Mr.  Fields  on, 
94. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  his  love  of  Rock 
of  Ages,  115. 

Gunsaulus,  F.  W.,  a  beautiful  in- 
cident by.  145. 

Gladden,  Washington,  183. 

Goodrich,  Mrs.  Chauncev,  225;  an 
incident  by,  226. 

Gently,  Lord,  Oh,  Gently  Lead  Us, 
228. 

Gates,  Mrs.  Ellen  H.,  239;  her  mis- 
sion hymn,  239. 

Gates  Ajar,  The,  250;  an  incident 
connected  therewith,  250. 

H 

Huntington,    Dr.,     on     The     Te 

Deum,  1. 
Horder,   Dr..   51;    he   praises   Ray 

Palmer,  183;  on  Dr.  Holmes,  233. 


Hark,  the  Herald  Angels  Sing,  how 

written,  74. 
How  Firm  a   Foundation.   122;  its 

authorship  uncertain,  123;stories 

of,  124-126. 

Holden,  Oliver,  writes  Coronation, 
130. 

Heber,  Bishop,  his  great  mission- 
ary hymn,  134;  his  noble  hymn 
on  The  Trinity,  139. 

Havergal.  Frances  R.,  214;  ;is  a 
hymn  writer,  218. 

Hastings,  Thomas,  226;  as  a  hvmn 
writer,  227;  his  popular  hvmn, 
228;  Prof.  Bird  on,  227, 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  231;  his 
noble  hymn,  Lord  of  All  Being. 
232, 

Hawks,  Mrs.  AnnicS.,  241. 

Hankey,  Katherine  H.,  243. 

Hold  The  Fort,  262-263-264. 


It  Is  Well  With   My  Soul,   origin 

of,   210. 
In    The  Cross  of  Christ  I  Glory, 

224. 
Immortal  Love,  Forever  Full,  229. 
I  Need  Thee  Every  Hour,  242;  an 

incident  in  its  use,  241. 


Jesus  Shall  Reign  Where'er  The 
Sun,  60-61. 

Jesus  Lover  of  My  Soul,  69;  full 
text  of,  75;  many  incidents  of  its 
spiritual  use.  76-82;  Dr.  Lorimer 
on,  77;  Dr.  Burrell  on.  77. 

Julian,  Dr.  John,  on  Charles  Wes- 
ley, 82;  his  opinion  of  Miss  Steele 
and  Miss  Havergal,  87-88; 
his  criticism  on  Bonar's  hymns, 
196* 

Juat  As  I  Am,  the  original  hymn, 
158;  when  written,  160;  its  im- 
mense popularity,  15  9-165; 
Gough's  anecdote  of  the  hymn, 
163. 

Jesus,  I  My  Cross  Have  Taken, 
origin  of,  169. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  Passeth  By,  247. 

Johnstone-Bishop,  Mrs,  Genevra, 
255. 


274 


HYMNS  HISTORICALLY  FAMOUS. 


Ken,  Thomas,  39. 
Keble,  John, 141;  his  popular  hymn, 
143;  its  widespread  use,   143-144. 


Luther,    Martin,    his    Ein     Feste 

Burg,  32;  discussion  with  Eck, 

191. 
Lead,  kindly  Light,  148;  the  hymn, 

150;    an    opinion    of,    by  T.  V. 

Tymms,  151;    L.  G.   Stevens  on, 

154. 
Lyte,  Henry  F.,  168;   his  pathetic 

death,  171. 
Lord  of  All  Being,  Throned  Afar, 

232. 
Lincoln,  Pres.,  hears   Mrs.   Gates' 

Mission  Song,  240-241. 
Lowry,    Robert,    his    estimate    of 

Miss  Crosby's   hymns,    237-241; 

his  successful  hymn,  264. 
Lord,  f  hear  of  Showers   of  Bless- 
ing, 242;  origin  of,  243. 

M 

Mason,  Lowell,  writes  music  for 
From  Greenland's  icv  Mountains, 
136. 

Morrison.  Rev.  Duncan,  on  Sun  of 
My  Soul,  144, 

McKinley,  Pres.,  dying  words  of, 
179. 

Moody,  D.  L.,  his  opinion  on  Just 
As  I  Am,  157;  his  use  of  Gospel 
Hvmns,  258;  first  meets  Mr. 
Sankey,  268. 

My  Faith  Looks  Up  to  Thee,  183; 
when  written,  184;  its  great  use- 
fulness, 187-188. 

Montgomery,  James,  220;  his  hymn 
prayer,  222. 

•'Moody  and  Sankey  Songs,"  257. 

McGranahan,  James,  267.  • 

N 

Newton,  John,  his  remarkable 
life,  99;  as  a  hymn  writer,  100; 
the  Olney  hymns,  100. 

Newman,  J.  H.,  148;  joins  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  149; 
how  he  wrote  Lead,  kindly 
Light,  150;  his  opinion  on  Dyke's 
music,  155. 


Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee,  174;  the 
text,  176;  its  personal  history, 
177;  many  incidents  of  its  popu- 
lar use,  177-181. 

Ninety  and  Nine,  The,  251;  its 
authorship,  253. 

O 

Old  Hundred,  when  composed,  47. 
O    Happy    Day   That    Fixed    Mv 

Choice,  63;  text  of ,  66;  story  of 

its  influence,  67. 
O    For    a    Thousand  Tongues  to 

Sing,  how  written,  72. 
One  Sweetly  Solemn  Thought.  203; 

its  origin,  204. 
Oakey,  Emily  S.,  245. 


Parker,    Theodore,    on   the  Dox- 

olo^y,  41. 
Perronet,  Edward,    127;    how    he 

wrote  his  Coronation  hymn,  128. 
Palmer,  Ray,  183;  what  suggested 

My  Faith  Looks  Up  to  Thee,  184; 

his  popular  translations,  188-189. 
Prayer  is  the  Soul's  Sincere  De- 
sire, 222. 
Prentiss,    Elizabeth  P.,    238:   her 

famous    hymn,    More    Love    to 

Thee,  238. 

R 

Rock  of  Ages,  origin  of,  112;  or- 
iginal text  of,  113;  history  of  ,its 
influence,  116-120. 

Root,  George  F.,  266. 


St.  Ambrose,  birth  of,  1;  legend  of, 
2;  Monica,  mother  of,  3. 

St.  Augustine,  singing  The  Te 
Deum,  3. 

St.  Stephen,  author  of  Art  Thou 
Weary,  10. 

Stead,  W.  T.,  on  Ein  Feste  Burg, 
35. 

Steele,  Anne.  84;  her  sorrowful 
life,  85;   her  popular  hymn,   87. 

Sankey,  Ira  D.,  sings  Cowper's 
There  is  a  Fountain,  etc.,  and 
captures  Mr.  Moody,  96;  tells  of 
Mrs.  Gates'  Mission  Son<_r,  240; 
his  story  of  The  Ninety  and 
Nine,  251;  his  power  as  a  singing 
evangelist,  267-268. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


275 


Sun  of  My  Soul,  141. 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  155 

Stand  Up  For  Jesus,  200-201. 

Spafford,  H.  G.,209;  his  ^reat  sor- 
row. 210;  writes  It  is  Well  With 
my  Soul,  211. 

Sometime  We'll  Understand,  how 
written,    267. 

Stebbins,  George  C,  269. 


Te  Deum,  The,  a  traditional  story 

of.  3;  text  of,  4;  Rev.  Mr.  Gibson 

on,    5;    historic    singing    of,  6; 

Thorn >s  Oliver's  hearing  of,  8; 

universality  of,  8;  sung  at  Pek- 
ing, 8. 
Thomas  of  Celano.  writer  of  Dies 

Irae,  19. 
There  is  a   Fountain  Filled   with 

Blood,    89;    Dr.    Horder  on,  95; 

many  incidents  of  its   spiritual 

use,  95-99. 
Toplady,    Augustus    M.,    109;   his 

singular  conversion,   109;   writes 

his  famous  hymn,   112. 
Tyng,  Dudley  A.,  198;   his    death, 

199. 
Take  my  Life  and  Let  it   Be,   216; 

oriuin  of  the  hymn,  217. 
Tell  me  the  Old,  Old  Story,  244. 


Veni  Creator  Spiritus,  text  of,  15; 
stories  of  how  written,  17;  Bishop 
Potter  on,  17. 


Veni  Sancte  Spiritus,   translation 

by  Ray  Palmer,  189. 
Van  Alstyne,  Mrs.,  237. 

W 

Watts,  Isaac,  founder  of  our  hymn- 
oloiry,  49;  his  precocity,  50; 
writes  his  first  hymn,  51 ;  story 
of  his  life,  52-54;  his  greatest 
hymn,  55;  Rev.  Campbell  on.  55. 

When  I  survey  the  Wond'rous 
Cross,  55;  stories  of  its  influence, 
56-57. 

Wesley,  Charles,  69;  declines  an 
h-irship,  70;  his  conversion,  71; 
Dr.  Julian  on,  82, 

Willard,  Frances  E.,on  How  Firm 
a  Foundation,  124. 

Wanamaker,  John,  incident  touch- 
ing Just  As  I  Am,  162. 

Whittier,  Jobn  G.,  229;  his  hymn, 
Immortal  Love,  229-230. 

Woman's  Songs  in  Evangelism, 
234. 

What  Shall  The  Harvest  Be,  245; 
a  striking  incident  in  its  use, 
246. 

Walker,  Mrs.  Anna  L.,  249. 

Work  For  the  Night  Is  Coming, 
249. 

Whittle,  Maj.  W.  D.,  258-269. 

When  He  Cometh,  a  remarkable 
instance  of  its  use,  266. 


Books  Worth  Reading, 

In   His  Steps:        '•  What  Would  Jesus  Do?"         C.M.SHELDON. 

Crucifixion  of  Phillip  Strong, 

Robert  Hardy's    Seven   Days, 

The  Twentieth  Door, 

His  Brother's   Keeper, 

Richard  Bruce, 

John  King's  Question  Class, 

Malcom    Kirk 

The  Miracle  at  Markham,      . 

In  His  Steps,  in  German. 

A  Hatter  of  Business,     . 

Not  His  Own  riaster,      .  .   MRS.  Q.  S.  REANEY. 

To  Pay  the  Price,    .         .  SILAS  K.  HOCKINQ. 

Edward  Blake:  College  Student,    C.    M.  SHELDON. 

Born  To  Serve,  .  "  " 

Victoria,  .        .         .     GRAPHO  (J.  A.  Adams) 

VELLUM  DE  LUXE,  50  cents  each. 


W.  C.  STILES. 


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